McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Sumaya works closely with clients as they explore strategies for the future health of their communities, missions, and business goals. With a deep understanding of the unique issues facing hospitals and health systems today, she also regularly advises clients on day-to-day operational matters and recent regulatory developments.

Prior to joining McDermott Will & Schulte, Sumaya was a lawyer at a large national firm, a visiting scholar at The Hastings Center, and an instructor and research fellow at Yale University’s Sherwin B. Nuland Summer Institute in Bioethics. During law school, she served as a law clerk for a nationally recognized health law practice, a legal intern at a regional community hospital, a client advocate and social policy advocate at Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Health Justice Project, and a published author and managing and coordinating editor for the Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences. 

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• Integration of two robust, geographically diverse nonprofit health systems, one Catholic and the other secular*
• Joint venture between an Illinois pediatric hospital and a California-based long-term care provider to establish a comprehensive pediatric post-acute specialty hospital*
• Represented a nonprofit health system in Pennsylvania in connection with its acquisition of a health plan*
• Affiliation of a Virginia-based nonprofit health system with a Florida-based nonprofit HMO*
• Disaffiliation, dissolution and wind-down of the business affairs of an Illinois health system joint venture*
• Acquisition by a nonprofit Washington health system of a for-profit hospital co-owned by physicians, followed by a complex internal corporate reorganization*
• Divestiture of an Illinois health system’s central-state business units to another Illinois health system*
• $1.5 billion merger of a large nonprofit North-Carolina-based health system with a for-profit health system*
• Merger of two major academic medical centers in Philadelphia to create an 18-hospital health system*
• Merger of a New Jersey health system with an academic medical center to create a 16-hospital system*

*Matter handled prior to joining the firm.

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• Person of the Year Award (Group Award to “Travel Ban Lawyers”), Chicago Magazine, 2017
• NCH Health Care Innovation Bright Spark Award, Northwest Community Healthcare, 2016
• Loyola Leadership, Service and Public Interest Recognition Award, 2016
• Outstanding Medical-Legal Partnership Award (Group Award), National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, 2015
• Health Law Fellow, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
• CALI Award: Health Care Business & Finance, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
• CALI Award: Health Law Legal Writing, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

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• Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinder, 2020
• Muslim Bar Association of Chicago, Board of Directors, 2024 to present
• SOS Children’s Village of Illinois, Emerging Leaders Board, 2016 to 2020
• Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program, Board of Directors, 2025
• Adjunct Professor, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Corporate Transactions in Health Law, 2025 to present

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