Mr. Mankey graduated from Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in 1976. He attended St. John's University where he attained a major in government and history with a minor in philosophy in 1980 but deferred graduation for a year to attend the University of Salzburg, in Austria. He earned a Master's Degree in International Affairs from the American University. During his studies at American University he attended the Instituto de Instruccion de Espanol in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1983. In 1985 Mr. Mankey completed his Master's program which included a published thesis on the Nicaraguan Revolution. Mr. Mankey has worked as a Congressional Staff person and as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill. He attended William Mitchell College of Law during which time he worked in the family law clinic and in the criminal division of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office drug prosecution team. He graduated from law school with honors in 1992. Mr. Mankey practices exclusively in the area of criminal defense. Mr. Mankey has been admitted to the Minnesota State Bar since 1992 and the Federal Bar since 1993. He was accepted onto the Criminal Justice Panel in 1997 and has been appointed by the federal court to dozens of federal criminal cases since that time. In addition to his private practice he served as a contract public defender in Hennepin County in 2004-05 and in Anoka County in 2012. He was chosen to serve as a conciliation court judge in 1997 and presided part-time for several years.