Physician Practice Management and ASC Symposium 2024

Larry C. Guess maintains a general health industry practice, focusing on transactional and regulatory matters. He focuses on representing private equity firms and platform companies, hospitals, health systems and life science companies. Larry has experience with a variety of transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, affiliation and product licensing arrangements. He also provides guidance on regulatory issues such as licensure, corporate practice of medicine, dentistry, physical and speech therapy, and compliance with Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute.

Previously, Larry spent more than a decade in the healthcare industry, marketing pharmaceuticals and medical devices for several Fortune 500 companies. During this time, he brought five multimillion-dollar products to market in major hospital systems across the United States. While in law school, he served as chair of the Accelerated Juris Doctor Board Association. While earning his Master of Business Administration, he served as chair of the Healthcare and Biotech Club, and the Black Management Association.

Leads M&A and strategic partnerships for outpatient service providers and private equity funds

Structures outpatient service platforms with expertise in physician alignment and compensation

Advises investors on sector-specific due diligence across specialized healthcare services

Counsels on federal and state regulatory compliance for outpatient services transactions

Develops state of the art care-delivery models for outpatient service providers

Advises on various federal and state regulatory matters and serves as a liaison with Texas regulatory agencies

Joseph (Joe) M. Parise advises healthcare clients on a wide range of transactional and regulatory matters across the United States. He serves as counsel to private equity firms and their portfolio companies, physician practices, practice management companies, behavioral health providers, hospitals and health systems.

Joe has experience executing a variety of transactions within the healthcare industry, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, affiliations and divestitures. He also works with clients to navigate the complex strategic and regulatory issues associated with those transactions.

He also provides guidance to clients on sector-specific regulatory issues including with respect to the practice of medicine, dentistry and physical therapy, state licensure and certificate of need, behavioral health and behavior analysis, and pharmacy and clinical laboratory matters.

Advises private equity funds and strategic investors on transactional and regulatory matters in the healthcare services industry  

Represents physician practice management companies and other healthcare services platforms on transactional and regulatory matters.  

Counsels hospital and post-acute provider clients on strategic joint ventures, affiliations, and regulatory matters  

Leads healthcare and life sciences M&A transactions across a broad array of healthcare sectors

Represents healthcare private equity funds with fully integrated transactional, finance, and regulatory counsel

Structures large physician practice roll-ups and MSO platforms across specialties, including emerging non-healthcare professional services models

Advises private equity sponsors and founders on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic contractual arrangements

Serves as external general counsel to private-equity-backed and founder-owned companies, counseling them on regulatory, employment, equity incentive, commercial contract, and corporate governance matters

Offers deep insights into highly regulated transactions, including those structured in the PC/MSO model, such as healthcare practices and professional services firms

Nicholas F. Alarif focuses his practice on healthcare regulatory and fraud and abuse matters, including the physician self-referral law (Stark Law), False Claims Act (FCA), the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute and other healthcare compliance matters. He also advises clients on the complex legal and factual issues surrounding Medicare Parts A–D reimbursement and other Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) payment policies. With his combination of in-house, federal government and Big Law experience, Nick provides well-rounded and actionable counsel to healthcare clients, with business objectives and compliance at the forefront.

Prior to rejoining McDermott, Nicholas served as systems director and senior corporate counsel for one of the country’s largest non-profit health systems. He also worked within CMS where he focused on Stark Law matters, including regulatory policy, the Stark Law Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol, advisory opinions and providing technical assistance to the US Department of Justice on FCA investigations and litigation. Before CMS, Nicholas worked at the US Department of Health & Human Services Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals. Nicholas also currently serves as an adjunct professor of Healthcare Fraud & Abuse at the American University Washington College of Law.

Jiayan Chen is an industry leader on matters relating to health data, technology and research. She represents clients on regulatory and compliance matters, commercial transactions, and investments and acquisitions that require deep knowledge of privacy, data strategies, artificial intelligence (AI) and other healthcare technologies, or research compliance. Clients turn to Jiayan for her practical, industry-informed guidance as they seek to develop, improve, deploy, or acquire solutions or businesses that harness the power of data or technology. Jiayan has extensive experience advising on investments and acquisitions in the life sciences sector, particularly with respect to businesses that conduct clinical research or offer solutions designed to accelerate research or research recruitment. Her practice includes working with patient safety organizations (PSOs) on listing applications, compliance, and strategies for appropriately creating and sharing patient safety work product.

Jiayan’s subject matter and industry insights come from advising a broad range of clients, including AI and other healthcare technology companies; data companies; hospitals and health systems; academic medical centers; genetics companies; digital health companies; PSOs; drug, device, and biotech companies; private equity funds; and platform companies.

Jiayan regularly counsels clients on data privacy requirements under US federal and state privacy law, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and various state genetic, health information, and consumer privacy laws. She works with clients on mapping and implementing data use and sharing strategies with appropriate data governance and programmatic safeguards. Well before the proliferation of generative AI, Jiayan was working with AI developers and deployers on compliance with privacy and research laws, efforts to leverage data to train and validate AI tools, and transactions involving the licensing of AI tools and AI-enabled platforms. These days, Jiayan also guides clients in developing AI governance and advises on proposed regulatory and legislative changes impacting AI.

Jiayan represents clients on a wide array of matters related to biomedical research, including negotiating the full range of agreements impacting research, building research compliance infrastructure, preparing protocols and informed consent and authorizations, and conducting transactions involving research site networks, providers of research solutions and other stakeholders in the biomedical research space. Jiayan’s regulatory practice includes counseling clients on state and federal “sunshine” and gift ban laws. She analyzes proposed arrangements and corporate organizational structures to identify and inform reporting obligations, and helps clients develop compliance mechanisms for managing their reporting obligations.

Defends mergers and competitor collaborations in the healthcare industry through federal and state antitrust enforcement agency review

Advises on ongoing conduct and antitrust compliance matters, including provider contracting networks, joint purchasing arrangements, information exchanges, and other forms of competitor collaborations

Jamie Gelfman is board certified in health law by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education and is certified in healthcare compliance (CHC) by the Health Care Compliance Association. Jamie works with healthcare clients on the full scope of legal issues that shape their business strategies. She is deeply experienced in regulatory, compliance, reimbursement, enrollment and licensure matters, with particular experience in the administration of Medicare and Medicaid programs, fraud and abuse, and scope of practice issues. With more than a decade of healthcare legal experience based in Florida, Jamie is a valuable partner for healthcare companies doing business in or working to expand operations in the state.

Jamie applies her regulatory insights to help clients proactively navigate complex state and federal reimbursement laws. She also handles regulatory due diligence for healthcare transactions, helping assess private equity deals and other healthcare transactions to minimize risk for her clients and maximize deal efficiencies.

In addition, Jamie defends clients facing disciplinary actions initiated by state agencies and professional licensure boards – another area where her experience in the Florida healthcare space provides her with unique insights. She also defends clients facing fraud and abuse investigations, qui tam actions and healthcare-related litigation and insolvency matters.

Advises on complex healthcare transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and divestitures of healthcare companies  

Focuses on ASC transactions and PPM platform growth and development on a national scale  

Represents private equity funds, platform companies, strategic investors, publicly traded companies, physicians, and family offices across a range of healthcare transactions  

Structures transactions to comply with state and federal fraud and abuse laws, licensure requirements, and corporate practice of medicine prohibitions

With a focus on complex transactions and regulatory compliance, Patrick Healy represents a wide range of healthcare industry participants, including non-profit and for-profit health systems, academic medical centers, physician organizations, post-acute providers and health plans. He works alongside his clients to execute their most critical transactions and strategic initiatives, leveraging corporate and healthcare regulatory expertise to drive an efficient and client-oriented approach to achieving his client’s business goals. Patrick has helped his clients navigate and successfully close more than 100 healthcare transactions with a focus on mergers, acquisitions, strategic affiliations, classic and contractual joint ventures and joint operating arrangements.

Patrick also routinely advises clients on a variety of transactional and regulatory matters related to value-based payment programs and delivery systems, leveraging his health economics and healthcare policy backgrounds in doing so. He assists accountable care organizations (Medicare, Medicaid, commercial) and other clinically integrated networks with formation, regulatory compliance, physician and management company joint ventures and participating provider relationships. Patrick advises hospitals and physician groups on their participation in Medicare, Medicaid, commercial bundled-payment and population health payment programs.

Patrick also represents several medication-assisted treatment (MAT) providers and other substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers with respect to growth strategy and transactions and regulatory compliance, including telehealth providers and portfolio companies operating on a physician practice management platform.

Prior to practicing law, Patrick obtained a Masters in Health Economics from the London School of Economics and was the senior research assistant for health policy in the Economic Studies Program at The Brookings Institution—a Washington, D.C. think tank consistently ranked as the most influential in the world.

Marshall E. Jackson, Jr. focuses his practice on transactional and regulatory counseling for clients in the healthcare and life sciences industries. Leveraging his transactional background and deep healthcare regulatory experience, Marshall provides practical and comprehensive counsel on the complex strategic and operational issues facing healthcare and life sciences companies and their investors.

He advises investors, including private equity, growth equity, venture capital firms, and their portfolio companies, on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic affiliations, as well as on a wide range of corporate, regulatory, and governance matters. Marshall is also deeply experienced on the company side, representing physician practices and other health organizations in their corporate, regulatory compliance, and governance needs.

Additionally, Marshall is particularly experienced in the digital health and health tech space — the intersection of healthcare and life sciences, software, analytics, technology, AI, and electronic data. He advises investors, healthcare and life sciences companies, and technology companies across the full scope of their transactional opportunities and complex legal, regulatory and compliance issues.

Travis Jackson advises leading hospitals, health systems, and academic medical centers on their most complex and innovative mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and joint ventures. He helps both for-profit and nonprofit healthcare organizations bring strategic transactions to market in a way that strengthens operations, improves care delivery, and supports physician and community relationships – while remaining compliant and cost-effective.

Travis has significant experience structuring, negotiating, and implementing transactions designed to advance physician integration, expand clinical offerings, and enhance brand presence. He brings a detailed understanding of federal healthcare reform initiatives, evolving transaction trends, healthcare corporate governance, and other legal issues that shape the business of healthcare.

With deep knowledge of federal tax matters and the distinct challenges facing tax-exempt organizations, Travis is a trusted partner to nonprofit providers navigating the complex state and federal requirements that govern their operations and strategic growth.

Sarah Kitchell focuses her practice on transactional and regulatory matters affecting a wide range of clients in the health care industry, including nonprofit and for-profit health systems, academic medical centers, community hospitals, drug and device manufacturers, contract research organizations, and post-acute and sub-acute providers such as home health and hospice providers, therapy providers, behavioral health providers and senior living facilities.

Sarah concentrates her transactional practice on strategic affiliations, mergers and acquisitions, physician-hospital alignments, venture capital investments and complex contractual arrangements. She also represents research sites, sponsors and contract research organizations with all aspects of clinical research contraction and formation of research networks. She also has provided assistance to medical centers and other research participants involving compliance matters, including internal compliance audits and revisions to policies and procedures involving topics such as research misconduct.

While in law school, Sarah was editor in chief of the Boston University Law Review and served as a summer associate at the Firm. Prior to law school, she worked for the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics and at a rural health clinic in Tennessee.

Sarah is a member of the Firm's Associate Development Committee, Associate Recruiting Committee, and Pro Bono and Community Service Committee. She focuses her pro bono efforts on representation of small nonprofit arts organizations and matters for the Medical-Legal Partnership of Boston.

Advises clients on telehealth, remote patient monitoring, AI-enabled tools, consumer wellness and other virtual care or digital health companies on product development, compliance, commercialization, and reimbursement strategies

Guides clients on structuring compliant care delivery models, navigating multi-state licensure, and advising on fraud and abuse, data privacy, cybersecurity, and other key areas

Advises mail order, retail and other types of pharmacies, suppliers and manufacturers on partnerships with healthcare companies and related compliance considerations

Develops compliance frameworks for consumer wellness programs and mobile health solutions

Leads retailers, tech companies and other non-healthcare companies through their development and launch of healthcare products or offerings

Structures provider networks and strategic collaborations among hospitals, health centers, and physicians

Counsels investors on healthcare trends, reimbursement opportunities and changes in laws to assist with designing their investment strategies

Laura McLane co-leads McDermott’s white-collar and government investigations practice as well as the Firm’s False Claims Act (FCA) practice, and is a nationally renowned FCA litigator. For over 25 years, Laura has defended companies touching all aspects of the healthcare and life sciences industries in government investigations, qui tam litigation under the FCA, and related matters. Clients call Laura “an exquisite lawyer, very smart and incisive,” a “fierce advocate for her clients,” and “simply a brilliant attorney with a tremendous ability to navigate difficult circumstances.” (Chambers USA). Laura was named Boston’s Lawyer of Year in Healthcare Litigation by Best Lawyers in America for 2025-2026.

Laura’s experience spans the spectrum of government oversight in healthcare and life sciences. Her clients include healthcare providers of all types as well as laboratories, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, private equity investors, and an array of other entities that reach the healthcare space. Laura represents clients in FCA matters throughout the country, as well as in federal courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. She has extensively litigated the myriad issues that typically arise in FCA cases, including representing her client in the landmark Escobar case in the Supreme Court. Clients state that Laura is “fantastic, . . . efficient and able to pull in knowledgeable resources right to the issue” (Legal 500 US) and “Laura is clearly a leader in the FCA space.” (Chambers USA). In addition to her healthcare experience, Laura defends clients facing FCA and other forms of government scrutiny in other industries, such as defense contracting and technology.

Beyond defending clients in investigations and litigation, Laura’s practice includes working closely with clients on FCA risk management and compliance assessments, and counseling buyers and sellers in transactions involving enforcement issues.

Litigates employee mobility, restrictive covenant, and trade secret cases across all industries, including private equity, healthcare, professional services, technology, and manufacturing.

Advises private equity firms and strategic buyers and sellers on employment aspects of M&A transactions, including employment risk assessment and mitigation.

Drafts employment agreements, multijurisdictional restrictive covenants, and termination and separation agreements for nonexempt employees through CEOs.

Counsels employers on noncompete and nonsolicit agreements, employee handbooks and policies, leaves of absence, disability accommodation, and independent contractor relationships

Matt Perreault advises healthcare organizations on complex transactions, sophisticated managed care arrangements, and related fraud and abuse matters. He represents accountable care organizations (ACOs); diverse provider, risk intermediary, care management and provider enablement organizations; health plans; and investors on a wide range of value-based care agreements, including shared savings, bundled payments, downside risk and capitation arrangements.

Matt serves as a strategic advisor to ACOs, independent physician associates (IPAs), managed care networks, integrated delivery networks and other healthcare providers, including hospitals and health systems, specialty providers, physician practices and innovative primary care organizations, on acquisitions, affiliations, reorganizations and other transactions. He also provides guidance on regulatory and fraud and abuse matters related to these transactions and contractual arrangements, including the physician self-referral law (Stark Law), the Anti-Kickback Statute, and general healthcare law and compliance matters.

Prior to joining McDermott Will & Schulte, Matt was deputy general counsel of a large national private health system, where he served as the lead lawyer for its managed care network, multi-specialty physician practice and hospital physician contracting throughout the system.

Tries complex cases in state and federal courts, arbitrations, and other proceedings across healthcare, trade secrets, product and environmental liability, and commercial litigation

Leads the firm’s class action practice, representing plaintiffs and defendants in bet-the-company disputes

Handles appellate matters, including oral argument before federal and state appellate courts across the United States

Maintains an active pro bono practice focused on protecting religious freedom and the rights of children and adults with intellectual and other disabilities

Monica A. Wallace focuses her practice on complex regulatory and transactional counseling to healthcare organizations, including health systems, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, physician groups, dental providers, behavioral health clients, integrated delivery systems, academic medical centers, DMEPOS and pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, home health agencies, and venture capital and private equity firms and their health-related portfolio companies. Monica is a practice area leader for the Healthcare Regulatory & Compliance practice.

Monica concentrates her regulatory practice on healthcare fraud and abuse, Medicare and Medicaid enrollment, reimbursement and billing, legal assessments and audits, compliance programs, and other general regulatory matters including licensure, survey/certification and accreditation. Her transactional practice includes mergers, acquisitions and affiliations, divestitures, hospital/physician joint ventures and corporate reorganization.

Previously, Monica worked with hospital executive management at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics on strategic academic medical center issues.

Allison Wilkerson focuses her practice on employee benefits matters. She has extensive experience handling issues pertaining to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).

With respect to ERISA, Allison focuses on compliance issues and the Internal Revenue Code related to employee benefits, including qualified plans, nonqualified plans, and executive and deferred compensation. While advising employers on the design, implementation and administration of tax-qualified retirement plans and nonqualified retirement plans, Allison provides relevant guidance as to administrative and operational matters, and assists clients with various benefit plan correction programs offered by the Department of Labor (DOL) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Allison also has advised employers with respect to issues raised in connection with corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures as they relate to the various benefit plans maintained by the affected corporate entity or entities.

Allison focuses her ESOP practice on the design and implementation of ESOP transactions and provides ongoing legal counsel to ESOP-owned companies. She has been involved in hundreds of transactions, including leveraged buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, and the structuring and financing of ESOPs using private equity. She has advised employers on the implementation of nonqualified plans and executive compensation arrangements that complement the employee ownership structure and culture inherent in an ESOP-owned company. Allison also represents independent fiduciaries in their role as purchaser in an ESOP transaction as to their legal duties with respect to their representation of ESOP participants and beneficiaries.

Allison writes and speaks frequently on ERISA and ESOP issues.

Patrick Zanayed represents private equity funds, digital health companies, strategic investors, ambulatory surgery centers, behavioral health facilities, senior care facilities, physician practices, and dental practices in a variety of transactional and regulatory matters. He also has deep experience advising on pharma services, clinical research, and health technology transactions.

Patrick has assisted clients in connection with numerous transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, dissolutions, and management and professional service arrangements, as well as the creation of multi-state physician practice management and telehealth structures. He also regularly advises clients with respect to corporate practice of medicine laws, state and federal telehealth laws, pharmacy laws, the fraud and abuse laws including the Anti-Kickback Statute, Beneficiary Inducements Civil Monetary Penalty Law, the Stark law and other federal and state legal, regulatory and business issues affecting healthcare providers and facilities.

Eric Zimmerman is a recognized Medicare law and policy authority and registered lobbyist who represents clients before Congress and administrative agencies, and helps clients navigate federal legislative and regulatory processes related to Medicare coverage, coding, reimbursement and compliance. He primarily counsels and represents hospitals and health systems, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device manufacturers and suppliers, medical trade associations and professional societies.