About Mark T.
Mark T. Coffin built a career that crosses law, business and community boards. He studied economics at the University of Southern California, earned an MBA from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, and took his law degree at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. Those three degrees anchor a practice informed by business sense and courtroom procedure.
Early in his legal career Coffin became a partner at Borton, Petrini & Conron, LLP in 1993. He moved on to co-found or join new partnerships a few years later, becoming a partner at Hardin & Coffin, LLP in 1998. In 2013 he joined Christman, Kelley & Clarke, PC as a partner, where he remains listed among the firm’s leadership. That pattern — moving from established firms to boutique partnerships and then to another firm partnership — shows a steady climb through private practice.
Coffin is admitted to practice in California and before the Federal Circuit. His membership records show ongoing ties to the California Bar Association since 1993 and continued participation in the local bar. He also keeps connections with the Santa Barbara Bar Association. Those memberships reflect a practice rooted in regional courts and federal appellate work.
Outside the courtroom he has taken on governance roles. Since 2010 he has served on the board of the Montecito branch of the YMCA and on the board of directors for the Santa Barbara chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He holds memberships in local contractor associations in Ventura and Santa Barbara, ties that suggest familiarity with construction and development issues that often intersect with litigation and transactional work.
Colleagues describe Coffin as a lawyer who blends a business education and a law degree in daily practice. He came of professional age during a period when transactions and disputes required both contract literacy and litigation readiness. Over time he has worked in partner roles across several firms, which exposed him to client development, case management and firm administration.
The arc of his résumé — economics undergraduate work, an international business MBA, a J.D., then partner positions starting in the early 1990s and continuing into the 2010s — frames a pragmatic practice. His civic board work runs alongside sustained membership in legal and trade associations.
He currently practices as a partner at Christman, Kelley & Clarke, PC, handling matters that draw on his combined business and legal training and his admissions to the California courts and the Federal Circuit.
