Mark Vezzola

Directing Attorney, California Indian Legal Services

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 Mark Vezzola is a Directing Attorney with California Indian Legal Services. His practice includes estate planning for individuals under the American Indian Probate Reform Act, Indian child welfare advocacy, advising Native organizations, tribal boards and committees, administering tribal elections, code drafting and defending casino tort claims. He has contributed articles on various legal topics to the Daily Journal, The Prison Journal, Native News in California, and updated the Indian Child Welfare Act chapter of the 2018 and 2019 editions of CEB’s California Juvenile Dependency Practice. Mark currently serves as the Chief Judge of the Pala Tribal Court in Pala, California and the Chemehuevi Tribal Court in Havasu Lake, California. He previously taught American Indian Studies and Native American history as an adjunct professor at Palomar College and San Diego Mesa College, respectively. From 2010 to 2012 he served on the Board of the California Indian Law Association. Mark graduated from UMass-Amherst with a B.A. in history and from UCLA with a J.D. and M.A. in American Indian Studies. During law school he clerked for the Hopi Appellate Court and interned at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Tribal Justice in Washington DC.