Meet Professor Bonner

Interview with: PROFESSOR MARK BONNER

Professor Bonner began his legal career at the U.S. Department What do you find most enjoyable about teaching at Ave Maria Law? The common law of England, as developed in the United States, is a beautiful way to run the legal affairs of a state. It is infused with natural law principles, and informed by Christianity in general, and the Catholic Church in particular. It reliably produces fair and reasonable results in the ordering of our affairs. So, teaching it is enjoyable. Where our law falls short of what it should be it is a real blessing to have the academic and social freedom to discuss and explain how some changes are good, and some aren’t. Ave Maria Law provides this academic freedom; a freedom that many American law schools don’t provide their faculty. Starting class with a prayer is such a right thing to do, for so many reasons. It is commonplace at Ave, and illegal at worst and ignored at best, at other law schools. Fides et Ratio. Prior to teaching, you have held high profile jobs such as Senior Advisor in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Assistant U.S. Attorney. What are some of the most crucial skills you have built during this career span that can be shared with students and alumni as a takeaway? A crucial skill, seriously, is figuring out what you want to say and do before you say it or do it. Sometimes this can take a lot of thought. Getting it right is crucial, and so is not getting it wrong. So, shooting from the hip is a bad idea and is something I learned early in my career. Whether it’s examining a witness at trial, or arguing cases to the Court of Appeals, or working in Moscow as I did with the U.S. Department of Justice, or whether it’s negotiating with foreign governments as I did with China for the Treasury Department and with large multi-national organizations

of Justice and served in a variety of capacities there for more than 25 years, including Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Resident Legal Advisor in Moscow. For ten years, he directed the investigation and prosecution of high-profile federal cases involving international and domestic terrorism. He subsequently joined the U.S. Department of Treasury, where he held the position of Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Undersecretary of the Treasury for Enforcement. Prior to teaching at Ave Maria Law, Professor Bonner served as a Senior Advisor in the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Office of International Affairs, where he oversaw the

Department’s activities within the Group of 8 (G8) countries. as a member of the G8 Senior Experts Group on International Organized Crime and Terrorism as I did with the Department of Homeland Security: putting in the time and thought to get it right (and resisting the impulse just to go ahead and say or do something just to get it done) is a crucial skill.

What advice do you share with students regarding how they should be preparing for their legal careers while still in law school? My advice is study all of it like you might earn a living doing it. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg taught me Corporations in law school. What a brilliant man. I decided I wanted to be a corporate lawyer. I also took several tax classes in law school and thought I might do tax as a career. The first great job offer I got was from the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, and it turned out I really liked criminal law and procedure, and liked litigation: I cruised into a happy and successful career doing that. So my advice is to pay attention in all your classes, as Providence might have a good path for you different from what you might expect.

You have traveled quite a bit in your life. What is one of your favorite places traveled and why? Bora Bora, hands down. It was more beautiful than I’d imagined (and I’d imagined it beautiful). A natural paradise. Well administered by the French. Lovely people, too. The singing at Mass on Sunday was in Polynesian; lots of vowels, sweet melodies, and everyone from the basso profundo large men to the soprano young maidens singing with unselfconscious ease, while a cool breeze floated through the church. Flowers everywhere.