Meet the Team at Venardi Zurada, LLP

Mark Freeman, Senior Trial Attorney
Mark is a Senior Trial Attorney at Venardi Zurada. He has worked at the firm since 2013. Mark is devoted to helping people that have been injured or treated unfairly in the workplace and he fights to ensure that insurance companies and employers do the right thing.
One of his best experiences involved serving as trial counsel for a young woman injured in a terrible car wreck; the jury justly compensated our client. Mark has also served as the senior associate in two personal injury trials where our clients prevailed after long, hard-fought court battles, including a 2023 case where the jury awarded over $2.7 million in damages.
Mark was a law review nerd and loves the writing process. He was the principal brief writer in a case of first impression that went before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and later the California Supreme Court. He is also a published author and wrote a Bar Exam study guide for law students.
Mark is a certified mediator and volunteers with a local organization that provides free mediation services at Contra Costa courthouses.
In his off-time, Mark enjoys spending time with family, traveling internationally, attending baseball games, listening to audiobooks, and building Lego sets (for which he has nearly run out of room to display).
Areas of Practice
- Auto Accidents
- Personal Injury
- Medical Malpractice
- Wrongful Death
- Employment Law
- Harassment
- Discrimination
- Whistleblower Protection Cases
- Retaliation
- Wage and Hour
- ERISA
- Writ/Appellate
Bar Admissions
- All State Courts within California
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit
- U.S. District Court Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of California
Education
- J.D. University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law (w/ Great Distinction), 2013
Honors: Order of the Coif; graduated in Top 10 of class
McGeorge Trial Advocacy Program – Completed with Honors
Chief Comment Editor, McGeorge Law Review - Saint Mary’s College of California, B.A. Economics; Minor in English & Creative Writing, 2010
Honors: Br. U. Jerome Griffin Award at Graduation (highest award in School of Econ. And Business)
Cumulative 4.0 GPA - Steven Rosenberg Mediation Training Program,
Graduate
Published Works
- Author, “BarCram: How To Survive the Last Two Weeks Before You Take (And Pass) the California Bar
Professional Certifications
- Certified Mediator
Honors and Awards
- “AV Preeminent” rating from Martindale-Hubbell (2022)
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Consumer Attorneys of California
- Contra Costa County Bar Association
- The Congress of Neutrals