Degrees
- St. John's University, B.S.
- American University, Washington College of Law, J.D.
Expertise
- Civil Rights
- Clinical Legal Education
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure
- Federal Criminal Prosecution
Mark Kappelhoff is a district court judge in the Fourth Judicial District in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was an Associate Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School where he directed the Criminal Justice Clinic, directed the Minnesota Law Public Interest Residency Program, and taught a seminar course on Human Trafficking.
Judge Kappelhoff spent nearly two decades as a federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he prosecuted human trafficking, police misconduct, and hate crime cases. He also served in a number of senior leadership positions, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Criminal Section. Among his responsibilities, he oversaw the Department’s investigation in Ferguson, Missouri and other police departments around the country. He also played an instrumental role in the Department’s efforts to secure passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, co-chaired the Attorney General’s Advisory Group on racial disparities in federal sentencing, and created the Civil Rights Division’s groundbreaking Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.