U.S. Senate Confirms Mark A. Totten as New Attorney in Michigan’s Western District

Mark A. Totten has been named as the new U.S. Attorney for the U.S. District Court of Western Michigan. Totten’s background includes experience as a Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney for Western District of Michigan from 2011 to 2013. Before then, he worked in Washington D.C., as a Law Clerk for Judge Thomas Griffith. And as an attorney with the appellate staff in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. In 2008 he began teaching criminal law at Michigan State University, where his research focused primarily on consumer protection and public enforcement. Since 2019 he has provided Chief Legal Council to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office. Totten was confirmed by a voice vote in the U.S. Senate last Wednesday.

Totten was nominated by President Joe Biden for the attorney role back in November last year. The Kalamazoo native, earned both his law degree and doctorate in ethics from Yale University in 2006. The U.S. District Court of Western Michigan tries federal criminal and civil law cases for the western lower peninsula and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; with courts located in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Marquette.