2021 Attorneys of the Year: Mark Myrha

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Myrha almost didn’t become a lawyer. In an interview last fall, he conceded that he drifted into the profession.

“My dad always had a negative view of lawyers,” he said. “Becoming a lawyer was the furthest thing from my mind.”

After college, Myrha joined the Marine Corps and became an infantry officer.

“I loved it, and might have stayed with it, except that my wife and I had the desire to have a more traditional home life,” recalled Myrha. “I resigned my commission, and one thing I had explored to get out of the infantry and recruiting duty was to go into the funded law program the Marine Corps had.”

Myrha went into law almost as a lark. Yet, he took the LSAT, applied to four schools and was accepted by two. After a time in private practice, he saw a better fit as an in-house attorney. He stayed with Boston Scientific for a decade and a half, where his specialty was risk mitigation.

The difference, he said, was that his internal clients were clearly grateful for his legal support. A private practice lawyer might get that sort of feedback occasionally, but in-house he got it every day.

“There is a central mission at Boston, and if you’re lucky enough to work at a company like this — which is related to the care of
people — my mission is essentially the same as those in our sales department or our R&D department,” he said. “We circle ourselves around this central mission.”

Read more about Minnesota Lawyer’s superb class of Attorneys of the Year for 2021 here.

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