Mark Sanford has labored on behalf of the injured and disabled since 1979. He was born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1954 and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, graduating from Arlington Heights High School in 1972. In 1976 Mark received his BBA degree in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin. During college he worked as a committee clerk in the Texas House of Representatives from January, 1974 to June, 1977.  He left Austin to attend law school at Oklahoma City University School of Law where he received his J.D. in 1980. While in law school, Mark worked on Law Review, earned a limited license to practice law in 1979 and won his first case before the Oklahoma Supreme Court six months prior to graduation.

Mark was admitted to practice by the New Mexico Supreme Court in 1998, the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 1984, the Texas Supreme Court in 1981, all by bar examination. He is also admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Northern District of Texas and to the Eastern and Western Districts of Oklahoma. He is a member of the New Mexico Bar Association, Eddy County Bar Association, State Bars of Oklahoma and Texas, National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives, Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity and adjunct faculty member of New Mexico State University-Carlsbad.

His community activities include being a member of the Carlsbad Cemetery Board and the Carlsbad Battered Family Shelter Board; Cavern City Rotary Club, Eddy Lodge #21 AF&AM; Signet Chapter #9 Royal Arch Masons, Ballut Abyad Shrine; the Carlsbad Scottish Rite Club; B.P.O.E. #1558, the downtown Lions' Club, and Leadership Carlsbad. Mark is also the President of the Jewish Congregation of Carlsbad where he set up and taught in the religious school.

Mark is married to Dr. Carol Sanford who is a speech-language pathologist, early childhood professor, and certified Montessori directress. They have two sons (Marcus and Ben), one daughter (Elizabeth), one dog and four cats. In what little spare time he has, Mark enjoys stamp and coin collecting, beer and winemaking, VW beetle restoration, Dallas Cowboy and University of Texas football.