Judge Tom Marten is a native Kansan. His degrees in political science and law from Washburn University in Topeka led to a one-year clerkship with Tom C. Clark, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

He practiced law with Kutak Rock in Omaha, Nebraska and Minneapolis, Minnesota, before joining Bremyer & Wise, P.A. in McPherson, Kansas, where he enjoyed a general civil and criminal trial practice for nearly fifteen years.  He served the McPherson community as president of its Chamber of Commerce and its school district’s Education Foundation, and as a member of many other local boards and committees.   Judge Marten also was active in several professional organizations, and has been a frequent trial advocacy instructor at Harvard Law School since 1989 and for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy since 1983.  He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

President Clinton named Judge Marten to fill a vacancy on the federal bench in Wichita in October 1995; the Senate confirmed the appointment in January 1996.