McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

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.

Joel C. Rush has a national practice that focuses on transactional and healthcare regulatory matters affecting healthcare companies, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic affiliations, and joint ventures. Joel serves principally as counsel to private equity funds, public and private companies, physician practices, hospitals, and strategic investors in connection with a wide range of transactional, regulatory and corporate structure and governance matters. Joel is able to leverage his transactional background and deep health regulatory experience to provide seamless legal counsel regarding the complex strategic and operational issues facing healthcare providers and investors. Joel is a practice area leader for the PPM practice.

Much of his practice is focused on working with private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in the healthcare services industry with respect to the corporate and regulatory aspects of complex transactions, with a particular focus on physician practice management platforms. On the sell-side, he has extensive experience representing physician practice groups in transactions with private equity sponsors and physician practice management companies. Joel also regularly counsels hospital and post-acute provider clients on transactional and regulatory matters, including strategic joint ventures and affiliations.

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

Justin P. Aiello works with healthcare providers and private equity sponsors in a wide range of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic contractual agreements. He structures transactions and financial arrangements to meet the business goals of all stakeholders while complying with an array of complex state and federal healthcare regulations. He is experienced in advising his clients on the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute, corporate practice of medicine laws, state licensure laws and regulations, and rules related to government (Medicare and Medicaid) and private reimbursement. Justin also counsels his clients beyond the closing of the transaction to manage day-to-day regulatory matters, employment matters, equity incentives, commercial contracts and corporate governance issues.

Justin focuses on transactions involving physician practice management companies (PPMs) and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). In the PPM space, he leads transactions between private equity sponsors and professional healthcare practices of varying specialties, including ophthalmology, optometry, gastroenterology, dermatology, dentistry, urology, radiology, OB/GYN and behavioral health. His sector-specific experience provides him with a comprehensive understanding of the relevant regulatory and business considerations in each of these spaces. In the ASC space, he leads transactions involving the purchase and sale of equity, and hospital joint venture arrangements with, both single and multi-specialty ASCs.

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.

Ashley Fischer advises clients across all sectors of the healthcare industry on their most critical transactions and collaborations. Her health antitrust practice makes her a valuable partner to healthcare businesses as they work to expand and pursue their strategic business initiatives.

Ashley routinely counsels on potential healthcare transactions and has successfully defended numerous provider mergers and competitor collaborations through federal and state antitrust enforcement agency review. Her counsel, with respect to the antitrust implications of the formation and operation of joint ventures and competitor collaborations, including managed care contracting networks such as clinically integrated networks (CINs), accountable care organizations (ACOs) and independent practice associations (IPAs), is highly sought-after.

Ashley also counsels health industry clients on ongoing conduct and compliance matters, including managed care contracting practices, exclusive services agreements, restrictive covenants, integrated delivery systems and vertical integration, and participation in information exchanges.

Ashley is partner-in-charge of the firm’s Health Practice Group in Chicago. Previously, she served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee and as a vice chair of the American Health Lawyers Association’s Antitrust Practice Group.

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.

Danielle Golino has a national practice focused on complex health care transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and divestitures of health care companies. Danielle is a national expert in ambulatory surgery center (ASC) transactions. She also specializes in physician practice management (PPM) transactions, assisting a wide variety of clients with PPM platform growth and development on a national scale across a variety of medical specialties. Danielle represents a variety of different stakeholders in the health care industry, including private equity funds, platform companies, strategic investors, publicly traded companies, physicians, and family offices in a wide variety of health care transactions, including the acquisition and sale of physician practices, dental practices, ambulatory surgery centers, immediate care centers, pharmacies, physician staffing companies, home health agencies, hospitals and medical schools. She also has experience structuring transactions to comply with state and federal health care fraud and abuse laws, state licensure issues, corporate practice of medicine prohibitions and other health care regulatory compliance matters.

While in law school, Danielle graduated at the top of her class and was awarded order of the coif. She was also a member of the University of Miami Law Review and the Moot Court Board. She also served as a judicial intern for the Honorable Shelby Highsmith of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Prior to entering law school, she served as an executive in the fashion industry.

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.

A former federal prosecutor with nearly 30 years of experience litigating and conducting government investigations, Ashley Hoff is highly regarded by the bench and bar alike. Companies and individuals can turn to Ashley for a significant advantage when facing government enforcement actions, regulatory issues, risk management and mitigation opportunities, internal investigations and high-stakes white-collar criminal defense cases.

Ashley co-leads McDermott’s criminal investigations and prosecutions practice. She joined McDermott after serving for more than two decades with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in the US Attorneys’ Offices. Ashley held executive leadership roles as branch chief, First Assistant and the court-appointed US Attorney for the Western District of Texas, one of the largest and busiest districts in the nation. She led and oversaw dozens of government investigations and prosecutions, including as first chair and solo chair at trial, making her a force to be reckoned with when navigating and defending these same matters.

Ashley has also handled countless complex cases, including those involving white-collar crime, healthcare fraud, public corruption, embezzlement, tax offenses, procurement fraud, national security matters, cybercrime, transnational crime and securities fraud. Through her experience, she understands that clients need competent, vigorous and early legal representation to gain a considerable edge in the government investigation and prosecution process.

Ashley’s background in overseeing government investigations and trying cases, combined with her extensive work with federal law enforcement agencies and DOJ components, make her an excellent advisor on corporate compliance programs. She navigates companies through ever-changing laws and regulations to avoid regulatory scrutiny, including advising on transactions both within and outside the United States. Ashley also brings a critical perspective when companies need to get ahead of potential enforcement matters, helping conduct quick and thorough internal investigations and advising on early strategies to protect business interests.

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,” and a “fierce advocate for her clients” (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).  Her recent experience includes guiding multiple clients through government investigations and related matters arising from the novel issues presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, including issues relating to testing, vaccination and treatment. 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.

Brian Mead is an employment litigator and transactional advisor who leads McDermott’s employee mobility practice. Clients call upon Brian for his substantial experience prosecuting and defending employee mobility, restrictive covenant, and trade secret litigation cases across various industries including private equity, healthcare, professional services, technology and manufacturing.

Brian regularly advises private equity firms and strategic buyers and sellers on the employment aspects of M&A transactions on both the buy-side and sell-side, assisting clients to understand and mitigate employment-relate risks and exposure. He is experienced in drafting employment agreements and multi-jurisdictional restrictive covenants, as well as termination and separation agreements, ranging from non-exempt employees to CEOs.

On a daily basis, Brian leverages his experience on non-compete and non-solicit agreements to advise clients a recommended course of action that aligns with their business needs and the requirements outlined by federal and state laws. He also advises employers on policies related to employee leaves of absence, discipline and performance issues, disability accommodation, structuring of restrictive covenants and independent contractor relationships.

Brian also provides regular counsel to employers on employee handbooks and policies, employee leaves of absence, discipline and performance issues, disability accommodation, structuring of restrictive covenants and independent contractor relationships. He is skilled in researching multi-jurisdictional employment issues and preparing memoranda explaining the nuances of these issues and providing a recommended course of action.

Kristen O’Brien is an accomplished healthcare executive with a deep understanding of regulatory advocacy and healthcare policy efforts.

Kristen offers a strong background and a keen eye for solutions to barriers and challenges impacting healthcare clients. With more than 10 years of experience, her work focuses on implementing new laws through the rulemaking process, as well as working with relevant agency officials to develop and improve agency guidance.

Kristen recently served as Principal of the Health Industry Policy and Regulatory Practice Group at a law and lobbying firm where she provided representation for hospital systems, physician practices, medical device companies, digital health companies and trade associations. She has extensive experience in providing analysis and counsel related to government healthcare payment programs under Medicare and Medicaid. She also has extensive knowledge of navigating the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and others.

Previously, Kristen provided legislative and regulatory legal analysis as a senior attorney for the American Medical Association. Additionally, Kristen served on the staff of former Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), focusing on health and environmental issues, as well as financial reform.

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.

Richard Salgado is the Dallas lead of McDermott Will & Schulte's Litigation Practice Group and co-leads the firm’s class action practice. He is an experienced trial lawyer who has first-chaired dozens of complex cases in state and federal courts, arbitrations, and other proceedings. His extensive jury and courtroom experience includes cases in all areas of health care, as well as trade secrets, product and environmental liability, and commercial litigation. He has successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants in complex, bet-the-company disputes including many cases in which the amount in controversy has exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars.

Richard also has extensive appellate experience. He began his career as an appellate specialist and previously served as the firmwide chair of the appellate practice at another large international firm. He has presented oral argument in more than two dozen cases before federal and state appellate courts across the United States.

Richard devotes substantial time to pro bono service, maintaining an active practice in two areas of focus: protecting religious freedom for all, and protecting the rights of children and adults with intellectual and other disabilities. He has also served as an adjunct professor at several law schools, including BYU Law School, SMU, and the UNT-Dallas College of Law, teaching courses on trial advocacy, trade secrets, and the First Amendment.

Following law school, Richard served as a law clerk to the Honorable Fortunato P. Benavides on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Katie is an experienced government relations strategist who helps clients navigate the complex issues surrounding Medicare, Medicaid and the healthcare marketplace.

Katie works with clients to represent their needs before the US Congress and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its agencies by relying on extensive experience as a policy advisor on the Medicaid and Medicare programs, as well as the 340B program and other aspects of the Public Health Service Act. She anticipates the effects of state and federal policymaking on issues impacting their businesses and crafts proactive and comprehensive legislative strategies.

Katie served as a senior analyst at the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), where she developed policy recommendations and conducted legislative analyses related to Medicare and Medicaid issues in support of Congress and HHS. At MACPAC, Katie regularly interpreted and analyzed large data sets for reports.

Prior to her work with MACPAC, Katie served in Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) office as a health policy fellow where she conducted research and analyses on health policy options. She also worked at George Washington University, where she led the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education evaluation.

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.

Eric also serves as a principal of McDermott+Consulting LLC, McDermott’s integrated health-focused policy, lobbying and data analytics consultancy.