Mark K. Leeman
Mark Leeman is a partner at Leeman & Garrison and an appellate attorney with more than fifteen years of experience. He has written and argued more than 200 appeals as lead counsel, including over twenty oral arguments before the Indiana Supreme Court, the Indiana Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. His published decisions have helped shape Indiana law on speedy trial rights, double jeopardy, Pirtle and Miranda advisements, guilty pleas, sentencing, and the right to counsel.
His Indiana Supreme Court cases have addressed questions that reach well beyond his individual clients. In McCoy v. State (2022), the Court considered whether police must give Pirtle advisements to a person who is both a victim and a suspect. In State v. Diego (2021), it considered whether a defendant's English proficiency matters when deciding if he was in custody under Miranda. In Battering v. State (2020), it decided whether the State's interlocutory appeal counts against the speedy trial clock. And in State ex rel. Allen v. Carroll Circuit Court (2024), it addressed a trial court's authority to remove appointed counsel in a criminal case.
Mark's practice extends beyond appeals. For more than fifteen years he has defended people charged with crimes in trial courts across Indiana. He has also represented employees in federal civil rights and discrimination cases, including a disability discrimination appeal in the Seventh Circuit, and has handled administrative litigation involving state retirement benefits. Throughout his career, he has worked to make high-quality representation accessible, especially for clients with limited means. He works closely with each client to find budget-conscious solutions for complex matters.
Mark founded his Logansport practice in 2010 and served as Deputy City Attorney for the City of Logansport from 2010 to 2011. Before returning to Indiana, he was an associate at Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago, where he defended corporate clients in government enforcement actions across the country. He clerked for Judge Robert G. James of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. As a law student, he clerked for Chief Judge Larry McKinney of the Southern District of Indiana and Judge Paul Mathias of the Indiana Court of Appeals.
Mark is active in Indiana's appellate bar. He served on the advisory panel of the Indiana Transcript and Exhibit Task Force and is a moot argument panelist for the Indiana Appellate Institute, where he helps other attorneys prepare for oral argument. He frequently teaches continuing legal education programs on oral advocacy, criminal law, and the use of AI in appellate brief writing. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Seventh Circuit, and the federal district courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana and the Northern District of Illinois.
Mark earned his bachelor's degree from the Honors College of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2004. He earned his J.D. cum laude from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2007, where he was inducted into the Order of Barristers, served as Managing Editor of the Federal Communications Law Journal, and directed the Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition.
Amber Garrison
Amber is a 1999 graduate of Logansport High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in 2003, majoring in Law & Society with a minor in history, and her J.D. from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 2013.
Before law school, Amber worked as a youth case manager at Four County Counseling Center. There she met with children and their parents at home and at school to build and carry out treatment plans. That experience still shapes her work with families in CHINS, juvenile, and custody cases. She has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in history and sociology as an adjunct professor at Trine University.
Amber Garrison is a partner at Leeman & Garrison. She practices family law, criminal defense, juvenile law, adoption, personal injury, guardianships, and estate planning. Her family law work includes dissolution, custody, child support, and parenting time. She also serves as a public defender, handling Level 6 felony cases in Cass County along with CHINS and juvenile delinquency. Courts in Cass, Howard, and Pulaski Counties regularly appoint her as a guardian ad litem, and she also serves as a mediator.
Amber’s connection to the firm goes back more than two decades. She joined in 2003 as a legal secretary, where she greeted and had constant and ongoing contact with clients, prepared cases for mediation and trial, helped prepare a criminal appeal to the Indiana Court of Appeals, and worked closely with Attorney Kelly Leeman in preparing personal injury cases. In 2009 she entered law school while continuing to work at the firm. During law school she was a certified legal intern at the Tippecanoe County Public Defender’s Office, working on criminal and juvenile cases that included two murder trials. She also interned with Judge S.K. Reid at the Marion Superior Court.
After earning her J.D. in 2013, Amber became an associate attorney at the firm. For six years she handled personal injury, criminal, and family law cases, along with juvenile delinquency cases as a Cass County public defender. In 2019 she opened Garrison Law, LLC, building a practice that spanned family law, criminal defense, wills and powers of attorney, and public defense in surrounding counties. After nearly six years on her own, she has returned “home” to the firm where her legal career began.
