Lieutenant Colonel Mark A. Bridges

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As a defense counsel in the Office of the Chief Defense Counsel, Office of Military Commissions, Lieutenant Colonel Mark A. Bridges has challenged the jurisdiction and procedures of the military commissions in federal court and in proceedings held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Lieutenant Colonel Bridges' recent efforts are the latest step in an exemplary military career.

Lieutenant Colonel Bridges has served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps as a military attorney since 1991, specializing in the practice of criminal law. He began his military career as a prosecutor with the 24th Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where he prosecuted serious criminal violations at one of the Army's busiest courts-martial jurisdictions. At his next assignment as appellate defense counsel with the U.S. Army Defense Appellate Division in Falls Church, Virginia, he successfully argued major personal jurisdiction cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, and was responsible for coordinating, briefing and arguing all extraordinary writs filed by Army trial defense attorneys located throughout the United States and abroad.

Following his assignment as appellate defense counsel, Lieutenant Colonel Bridges supervised the prosecution of all courts-martial and other criminal and adverse administrative matters as the Chief of the Criminal Law Division at Fort Bliss, Texas. After obtaining a Master of Laws degree from the Army's Judge Advocate General's School in Charlottesville, Virginia, Lieutenant Colonel Bridges became the Senior Defense Counsel in the Hawaii Field Office of the U.S. Army Trial Defense Service, where he was responsible for the supervision of all defense services for soldiers under investigation and tried by courts-martial throughout the Army's Pacific Region.