Focused on the family

Walking into Mark W. Eggert’s office, it’s immediately apparent what’s important to him.

Pictures of his wife and four children adorn his desk… his walls… his bookcases. Sculptures clearly crafted by talented young hands add a bit of color to the room at the end of the hall in the East Building at the School of Medicine.

And photographs from his military experience have their own place on the wall.

Two things have had a profound effect on Eggert, J.D., associate vice chancellor and deputy general counsel: his family and his military experience.

Following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1986 (he also earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard), Eggert was like many young attorneys — ready to do whatever it took to become a better lawyer, make his mark and move up the ranks.

Instilled at a young age with solid family values by his parents, Eggert joined the U.S. Army National Guard in 1982. Over the next 12 years, he attained the rank of captain and added a litany of awards and achievements to his résumé.

He also saw his outlook on life start to change.

“The Army’s Ranger and Pathfinder schools teach soldiers to perform special missions in small groups,” Eggert explains. “It was really rigorous training and taught me a lot about how people react under high strain, when they are tired, hungry, physically exhausted.

“It makes you realize how important it is, in almost anything you do, to be supported by other people and to be able to count on those people in tough times. My military experience is something that I’m proud of, and I feel it’s had a big impact on how I do my job now — how I approach my work and my family life.”

His first job as an attorney came in the office of Republican Missouri Sen. John Danforth in Washington, D.C., in 1987. But just two years later, Eggert and his wife, Julie, also a recent law school graduate, moved to San Francisco so she could take a job with a firm.

And that’s where Eggert experienced a life-changing event. His son, Brian, was born in 1990.

“Before children, my focus was on career development — becoming a better lawyer, and how I might use my legal experience to pursue a career in government or politics,” Eggert says. “But after Brian was born, almost immediately my focus started shifting to how I could be the best parent, and how I could turn out the best children possible.”

Feeling the need to be closer to the new grandparents, Eggert — who grew up on a farm in Franklin County, Mo., and attended Union High School — and Julie moved back to Missouri.

Three children followed in the next few years: twins Natalie and Lauren and youngest son Kevin.

Upon his return to Missouri, Eggert served a stint in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in St. Louis, where he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the economic crimes unit of the criminal division.

“At that point in my career, I really wanted the job in the U.S. Attorney’s office. It is an important public service position,” Eggert says. “The job gave me a lot of personal satisfaction, and it’s an excellent position for litigation attorneys because you spend a lot of time in the courtroom.”

But family remained at the forefront of his decision-making. Eggert’s three youngest children were born while he was serving in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

With four children, he began worrying about how he would finance their college educations and all the other expenses that he knew would be coming. He decided a move back to private practice was in order, which led Eggert to Bryan Cave LLP, Missouri’s largest law firm.

There, Eggert’s practice areas included client counseling on regulatory matters and contractual disputes, corporate criminal defense and internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation.

And one of his clients just happened to be Washington University.

“When I started doing work for Washington University, I became very interested in the in-house practice at a university,” Eggert says. “It’s not something I knew anything about until I started working as an outside lawyer for the University.

“But the more I learned about it, the more I realized that universities face probably the broadest range of legal issues of any institution in our country. So for a lawyer, an in-house position at a university is incredibly challenging.

“There is always something new. There is no way to get stale in one of these positions.”

It is said that timing is everything, and Eggert’s predecessor was leaving the University’s general counsel office at about the same time that Eggert was realizing that being in private practice — with its all-consuming nature — might not be the best way to spend his time. Certainly not with four kids running around at home.

So, in 1998, he applied for — and was offered — the position he currently holds.

Eggert primarily oversees the legal affairs of the School of Medicine, though he also works on legal matters involving other elements of WUSTL.

“Mark has brought so much more to the University than his remarkable legal talents and wide-ranging experience,” says Michael Cannon, J.D., executive vice chancellor and general counsel. “What really sets him apart is how he weaves his legal brilliance and experience around a core of great wisdom, extraordinary strategic skills, high integrity, even temperament and an active sense of humor.

“Mark is a wonderful communicator and a tremendous asset to the University.”

Eggert says that because universities are always pushing the boundaries of science and human knowledge, they also push the boundaries of the rules and regulations that govern these endeavors.

The government is constantly updating the rules to account for new discoveries in science or medicine. That’s a big factor for the general counsel’s office, to stay on top of the changing regulatory landscape so that it can help guide the University’s physicians and researchers through it.

“This position has given me everything I’ve wanted,” Eggert says. “I work with fantastic people — the faculty members and the administrators are very smart, innovative people, all involved in incredible research or clinical care.

“Even though I don’t actually perform any of the terrific work that they do for their patients, or for the advancement of science, I feel good about being able to support them in their efforts. I get a lot of satisfaction from it.”

“Mark Eggert is an enormous asset to Washington University,” says Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “He brings great knowledge, expertise and good judgment to the table. He is strongly devoted to the mission of the School of Medicine and has a remarkable ability to multitask.

“He is a formidable adversary, probably drawing on his Army Ranger days, but is also a wonderfully supportive colleague and friend,” Shapiro continues before adding tongue-in-cheek, “which is a hard thing for a physician to say about a lawyer.”

Working at the University has also given Eggert more time to spend with his family. And he makes the most of that time.

He has coached all of his children in baseball and softball, and still coaches Kevin’s Little League team.

He and Julie also try to take at least one family vacation per year where the kids will do something exciting or learn something new.

In early August, they traveled to Greece and the Netherlands.

“Since our entire focus is on the kids, these family vacations are really important,” Eggert says.

“Sometimes we are exploring, like this year, and sometimes we just do lake vacations, boating, fishing, reading on the dock and just relaxing as a family.”

When he can fit it in, he plays baseball for a senior league team. He’s been doing that for the past eight years, and uses the game as a way to clear his mind: “When I’m playing ball, I’m not thinking about anything else,” he says with a smile. “I enjoy the competition and the camaraderie.”

John Jellison, a 509th Airborne veteran and teammate of Eggert’s on the baseball team, says, “In the short years that I have known Mark, he is the best friend a man can have. Growing up in the military, and serving myself, it was easy to befriend Mark.

“With Mark, what you see is what you get. He will always go the extra mile, help or offer to whether called upon or not.”

Eggert’s athletic endeavors aren’t the only thing on his agenda, though — despite being busy, he tries to make it to all of his kids’ extracurricular activities.

Now 14 years into the parenting experience, Eggert says that being parents has been “surprisingly rewarding, because the kids force us to see the world through their eyes, and that keeps us fresh, keeps us excited about things that might not be new to us anymore.”

“Julie and I feel that we are in a 20-year period where our entire focus, our single priority, is turning our kids into good, compassionate, productive young people before we send them on their way,” he says. “So this is all part of it, the little things like making sure I’m at their sporting events or dance recitals, and doing things together as a family.

“Sometime when they are in their 30s, I’d like them to think back and say, ‘Gee, my parents were there when I pitched a great game, or performed in a big dance competition, or sang in the school concert.’ I really want them to have that recollection and hopefully have the same emphasis with their kids.”