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Marc Berman was first elected to the California State Assembly in November 2016. He represents the 23rd Assembly District, which includes southern San Mateo County and northern Santa Clara County, spanning from the heart of Silicon Valley over the hill to the beautiful Coastside.
Marc chairs the Assembly Business and Professions Committee, which oversees health care professional licensing and regulation, occupational licensing and regulation, vocational education, and regulation of the legal cannabis industry. Until late 2021, Marc chaired the Assembly Elections Committee, where he was a leader on protecting voting rights, shielding voters from deceptive elections practices, making election information more accessible, and improving election cybersecurity and campaign finance disclosure. He also chairs the Select Committee on the Master Plan for Higher Education in California, which is conducting a methodical review of California’s higher education policies to make sure they meet the needs of current and future students.
Marc has had one of the highest rates of success in the Legislature, having sent 99 bills to the Governor in his first eight years in office – with 93 bills signed into law. He championed legislation that requires elections officials to mail voters a ballot before every election. He wrote the law to phase out the sale of new gas-powered landscape equipment statewide and authored landmark legislation to reform the college transfer process from a student perspective. In addition, Marc wrote legislation to make it easier for Californians to cancel their subscriptions online.
In previous years, Marc authored bills to establish the first-in-the-nation firearm violence prevention training program for physicians, provide suicide prevention training for middle and high school students and staff, crack down on nefarious political and pornographic deepfakes, and create a Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights. In addition to chairing the Business and Professions Committee, Marc also serves on the Assembly Elections; Insurance; and Transportation committees. Prior to the 2020 Census, Marc led the Assembly’s efforts to prepare for the federal population count as chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Census.
Marc previously served on the Palo Alto City Council, where he was a leader on infrastructure improvement and financial transparency. While serving on the Palo Alto City Council, Marc worked for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, a non-profit focused on increasing access to high quality STEM education and closing the achievement gap in Bay Area public schools.
Prior to his work in the non-profit sector, Marc was an attorney with Latham & Watkins LLP and Merino Yebri, LLP. Marc successfully represented pro bono clients seeking protection under the Violence Against Women Act and asylum in the United States due to political persecution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also served as pro bono counsel to Spark, a national youth development non-profit.
Marc was born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Palo Alto. He earned a degree in Political Science from Georgetown University and went on to graduate from law school at the University of Southern California, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association and served for two years on the Southern California Law Review.
Marc lives in Menlo Park with his wife Aimee Gildea and their puppy Maven.