Flintridge Preparatory School: Mark Geragos ’75 Discusses the True Meaning of Justice

In a small gathering in Prep’s Chandramohan Library, Mark Geragos ’75 described his journey toward “the most noble calling there is,” as a criminal defense attorney. He has made his career defending high-profile individuals who were reviled by the public, including Susan McDougal, Winona Ryder, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson. In these cases, he says, because of their fame and the accusations against them, the presumption of innocence was nearly impossible.

“That’s why I wrote the book,” he says, referring to Mistrial, co-written with his law partner Pat Harris. The book depicts an entrenched legal system that is filled with career professionals who are motivated by politics and influenced by a 24-hour tabloid-driven news cycle.

“The world is full of little guys who face opponents with larger-than-life interests,” he said.

Geragos wanted to take on criminal defense and civil litigation because everyone deserves a defense, especially those who are presumed guilty. The sentiment goes back to his days as Flintridge’s commissioner general, says biology teacher Rob McLinn.

“Mark did a lot of disciplinary work for the school,” McLinn says, adding that Geragos always tried to look at things from both sides and to be as fair as possible.

Family is an important part of Geragos’ life, and he made a point of mentioning that the book is dedicated to his father, Paul, with whom he was in practice for the first 20 years of his career. Like his father, the rest of family has always been at the heart of his life. In fact, the Geragos legacy at Flintridge is impressive. Both his brothers (Matt ’76 and Mike ’80), as well as his nephew (Mikey ’09), niece (Rachel ’06) and his children (Teny ’09 and Jake ’12) attended Flintridge Prep and remain closely connected with the school.

Now Teny is in law school herself, but in 2009 he remembers waking her up early one morning after receiving a phone call.

He joked, “When I got the call to defend Chris Brown, I had to ask Teny, ‘Who, or what, is a Rihanna?’”

Geragos kept his audience of faculty members entertained with stories about jury selection and media relations in a constantly connected world. He mentioned the pair of federal class action lawsuits against New York Life Insurance and AXA Corporation for insurance policies issued in the early 20th century during the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Turk Regime.

That’s a prime example of a legal David versus Goliath. While Geragos is proud that he was able to settle the cases for more than $37.5 million, the most important thing to him was that he was able to secure justice for more than a million Armenians, including members of his own family.

Flintridge Preparatory School, 4543 Crown Avenue, La Cañada Flintridge, (818) 790-1178 or visit www.flintridgeprep.org.