Mark is an experienced trial lawyer and investigator who has been involved with a number of high-profile matters in Washington, D.C., during more than 16 years in the federal government.
Drawing on his experience as a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and senior counsel to the Deputy Attorney General, Mark advises in the areas of white collar criminal investigations, anti-corruption policies, whistleblower complaints and regulatory enforcement actions; healthcare; and government contracting. In addition, he represents clients facing government investigations and conducts internal investigations for corporate clients in response to government subpoenas, congressional inquiries and allegations of misconduct.
Immediately prior to joining Husch Blackwell, Mark was Deputy General Counsel to a Select Committee at the U.S. House of Representatives, where he contributed to the handling of congressional investigative subpoenas. Mark also assisted in developing strategic legal and policy plans for a thorough high-profile, international fact-based congressional investigation into the attack on an embassy facility in Benghazi, Libya.
As Deputy General Counsel for the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Mark served as a Special Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Fraud Section. In this role, he investigated and prosecuted domestic and international cases involving securities fraud, money laundering, and payment and receipt of bribes and gratuities, as well as government contract and procurement fraud cases. He assisted in civil and criminal litigation pertaining to the prevention, detection and prosecution of False Claims Act and procurement fraud matters involving more than $10 billion in U.S. government funds appropriated to the reconstruction of Iraq.
Mark has participated as either lead counsel or second chair in jury trials involving:
- Opioid, cannabis and international narcotics smuggling cases as well as DEA pharmaceutical drug diversion cases.
- An individual who engaged in criminal conduct aboard Delta Air Lines; Mark later successfully briefed and argued the matter before the Fourth Circuit.
- A three-defendant trial in which he was responsible for all aspects of the investigation and case, including drafting and filing motions, drafting and responding to discovery requests, writing the response motions and drafting appellate briefs.
During his tenure at DOJ, Mark worked on healthcare fraud policy issues and was detailed to the DOJ Civil Fraud Section to investigate healthcare fraud parallel proceedings and work with the committee of the joint DOJ-HHS Healthcare Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT).
Later, as Deputy Compliance Officer of a national healthcare company, Mark managed a corporate compliance group that was responsible for reporting fact-finding and analysis with respect to enterprise-wide compliance risk issues, including anti-kickback statute risk, billing and False Claims Act risk, and CIA-related matters. Mark also assisted the direction of the company’s internal investigations of possible noncompliance with policies and applicable laws and regulations. He has counseled companies on effective detection of fraud, waste and abuse strategies, and as the Executive Director of the Justice Department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property, Mark spoke internationally on government enforcement strategies for corporate and small-business trade secret and intellectual property protection.