Mark Pulliam is a retired lawyer, yet his most exciting days have only just begun. He now exposes the corruption happening in some of the biggest media outlets and institutions in the state of Texas.
Pulliam was born and raised in Washington, D.C., though his parents did not work for the federal government. “Growing up in D.C. always felt like I lived in a ‘company town’ without being part of the company,” he said.
Pulliam never expected to become a lawyer. “None of my family were lawyers,” he explained. “My dad was a carpenter, and my older sister was the first one in my family to go to college.” His brother was an auto mechanic, but Pulliam had always struggled with trade skills. “I couldn’t hammer a nail or figure out which way to hold a screwdriver,” he quipped, “So if I was going to be anything I’d have to figure out how to make a living with my book smarts.”
He said that watching detective TV shows like Perry Mason, who was the Sherlock Holmes of the law field, got him interested in the profession. In 1977, he moved to Texas to attend law school at UT Austin, and afterward reluctantly moved to Southern California to pursue a legal career.
When he returned to Texas nearly 30 years later, married with four grown children, he discovered that the state was not the solid bastion of conservatism that he was expecting. Pulliam quickly educated himself on all the corruption taking place at the University of Texas and in the state legislature, and the biased news coverage by large media sources such as the Texas Tribune, Texas Monthly, and Alcalde, the Texas Exes publication.
“It was at that point that I decided that my calling in retirement was going to be a writer who exposed the deceit and corruption that seemed to pervade the corridors of power in Texas,” he stated.
At first, Pulliam pushed back against the dishonest news coverage, but eventually he started writing for National Review, The Federalist, The American Spectator, and even the Wall Street Journal. He then launched his own blog called Misrule of Law, dedicated to exposing judicial and legal corruption.
“A lot of people just read the headline of a crazy judicial decision or bad public policy and say that it’s wrong,” he said, “but they don’t understand why it’s wrong or how it got to be that way.”
He went on to say that there are few lawyers who bring an informed, conservative commentary to important legal issues. “As a retired lawyer, I can see through the smoke screen and explain the issues in a way that a normal audience can understand.”
Pulliam’s blog and various writings have garnered national attention, but he says that he is just one of the many needed voices in the fight for liberty. “Even one person holding a flashlight provides some illumination in a dark room, and the cockroaches will scatter.”
He encourages everyone to speak out for justice in their spheres of influence, because liberty depends on the equal rule of law. “We need to rally,” he said, “because the forces of liberty are under siege. If ordinary people don’t realize what’s at stake, we’ll be overcome just like the defenders of the Alamo.”
In his free time, Pulliam enjoys the outdoors and traveling with his wife across the U.S., especially to national parks.
