Fluid Regulatory Regime, Industry Consolidation, and Privacy Issues Drive High Demand for Healthcare Legal Counsel
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Vol. 38 • No. 12 • December 2019 In This Issue An industry-wide look at healthcare law focusing on recent changes that affect how firms must now strategize this critical practice area. ................................................................................................Page 1 A year-end round-up of legal industry trends, from hot practice areas like immigration to headline-grabbing discrimination suits against major firms. ....................................................................Page 3 Tom Clay takes a hard look at partner productivity as a basis on which to usefully redefine and strategically improve law firm productivity. ............................................................................................Page 5 Patrick McKenna discusses esports, a profitable niche area that promises long-term sustainable growth. ................................................................................................................................................ Page 10 John Smock identifies management strategies that are truly time-tested, having proven consistently successful from decade to decade. ..................................................................................... Page 13 At Weinberg Gonser, firm founder Tye Gonser is setting new leadership standards to achieve optimal morale and superior client relations. ....................................................................................Back Page State of the Practice … Fluid Regulatory Regime, Industry Consolidation, and Privacy Issues Drive High Demand for Healthcare Legal Counsel Ask healthcare lawyers what’s keeping them experience in issues that arise in all three of busy these days and they may simply reply, those categories can position themselves at a “Everything, all the time.” But when pressed, distinct advantage within the bustling mar- they’ll likely narrow down the scope of most ket. The problem is, those attorneys are too of the work to three areas: the ever-evolving few and far between. regulatory framework, consolidation of the healthcare industry, and privacy and data security issues, particularly privacy centering around the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Continued on page 2 With client demand high and healthcare lawyers’ workloads heavy, law firms that can find attorneys who bring expertise and Cari Haper, a healthcare lawyer and chair transaction,” Haper says, adding that the firm of the Dayton, OH office of Cleveland-based is seeking new hires to build its ranks in this Thompson Hine, does possess the regulatory/ area. “The knowledge of the healthcare laws consolidation/privacy and data security three- and the ability to understand a transaction pronged skill set, and she acknowledges that are both very valuable.” it’s hard to find others who even have experi- ence in two of those areas. Tracking Changes “Many healthcare lawyers have a solid understanding of healthcare laws but they don’t really know how to do business Perhaps no area in the legal profession deals and think creatively to accomplish a requires attorneys to monitor, research, and analyze changes in the relevant laws and regu- lations as much as the healthcare space does. “Staying abreast of all the changes is not for the faint of heart,” says Kelly Hagen, the co- chair of the healthcare group at Portland, OR-based Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt, which has six core attorneys but some 25 across various disciplines provide legal exper- Copyright © 2019 CCH Incorporated. tise and support. “If you don’t like learning All Rights Reserved. new things, this isn’t your area of practice.” OF COUNSEL (ISSN 0730-3815) is published monthly by Wolters Kluwer, 28 Liberty Street, New York, In Nashville—known by many as The NY 10005. Subscription rate, $1,230 for one year; single Healthcare Industry Capital because it’s the issues cost $154 (except OF COUNSEL 700 ANNUAL SURVEY). To subscribe, call 1-800-638-8437. For cus- home to the headquarters of many hospitals tomer service, call 1-800-234-1660. Address correspon- and other healthcare-related organizations— dence to OF COUNSEL, 28 Liberty Street, New York, attorney Timothy Gary concurs, paraphras- NY 10005. Send address changes to OF COUNSEL, ing the famous words of the Greek philoso- Wolters Kluwer, Distribution Center, 7201 McKinney pher Heraclitus. “I’ve been practicing law in Circle, Frederick, MD 21704. this area for 27 years and the one constant This material may not be used, published, broadcast, has been change,” says Gary, an attorney in rewritten, copied, redistributed, or used to create any derivative works without prior written permission the Nashville office of Detroit’s Dickinson from the publisher. For information on how to obtain Wright and the CEO of the healthcare-related permission to reproduce content, please go to the government relations firm Crux Strategies. Wolters Kluwer Web site at www.WoltersKluwerLR. “We spend time and expect to spend a lot com/policies/permissions-reprints-and-licensing. more time in the next couple of years dealing For customized article reprints, please contact Wright’s Media at 1-877-652-5295 with the changes.” or go to the Wright’s Media Web site at www.wrightsmedia.com. And sometimes those changes don’t mani- This publication is designed to provide accurate fest where you’d expect them to. “You find and authoritative information in regard to the sub- important regulations in the strangest of ject matter covered. It is sold with the understand- places; usually somebody somewhere gets ing that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. wind of the fact that the Stark Law changes If legal advice or other professional assistance is are in the physician fee rules so you better required, the services of a competent professional go look at that,” Hagen says, referring to the person should be sought. —From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted statute named after Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) by a committee of the American Bar Association who sponsored the initial bill. It’s actually a and a Committee of Publishers and Associations. set laws that prohibit physician self-referral, www.WoltersKluwerLR.com Continued on page 18 2 Of Counsel, December 2019 From the Editors Taylor’s Perspective … 2019: The Year that Was in the Ever-Dynamic Legal Profession As the year comes to a close, it’s natural partner Deborah Willig. “We know … for us to look forward into what 2020 might that, from time to time, we need to evaluate bring, and it’s going to be a big year. We’ve the way our firm operates and ensure that we got the Olympics in Tokyo this summer; a continue to be a workplace with a culture that few more months of hearing the currently talented people want to join.” red-hot dismissive (and witty) term hurled at members of an older generation by members In February, in these pages, I asked of a younger generation, “Okay, Boomer”; sources to weigh in on occupational burn- and oh yes, we have a presidential campaign out, something that seems to set in more to look forward to or perhaps “endure” is a during the second month of the year—after more appropriate word. the holidays and start of a new year have passed—than in other months. James Dolan, But before we do, let’s take a gaze backward a psychotherapist in Dallas who counsels at the events of 2019. In January, more than many attorneys, recommended that lawyers 100 women took office in the 116th Congress, embrace outside interests to ward off the in large part because of the 2018 electoral blue erosion of on-the-job motivation. “Have an wave. Robert Mueller concluded his report activity that you’re passionate about,” he with mixed results, climate change–related said. “It’s important to have enough activi- fires and weather events wreaked havoc, and ties in your life that are replenishing rather a certain US–Ukraine phone call took center than depleting.” stage. In the first half of the year, we saw and In the legal profession, 2019 began with reported on a rise in activity in two practice high expectations for many law firms. In areas, government relations work and immi- January, we looked into those expectations gration law. At Boston’s Mintz Levin, one of by reporting on the New Year’s resolutions the nation’s preeminent immigration lawyers, of several law firm leaders and industry Susan Cohen, said the “current environment insiders. Chief among them was the vow to is driving tremendous interest” in this field work more diligently on associate hiring and of law, including from young lawyers who retention. increasingly seek out volunteer opportunities. “In my 34 years of practicing in this area, I “Searching for the best and brightest attor- have never seen as high an interest in immi- neys to add to our team has been and will con- gration law as I have in the last two years,” she tinue to be a priority for [Philadelphia-based] said. “I’ve never had so many people want to Willig, Williams & Davidson,” said managing volunteer.” Of Counsel, Vol. 38, No. 12 3 In May, we ran an article about law firms’ In September, we published our annual Of increased reliance on outside recruiters to Counsel 700 Survey of the Nation’s Largest help fill their lawyer ranks in a very com- Law Firms. In it, we reported on the competi- petitive market for talent, particularly for tive intelligence company Decipher, which associate attorneys. The profession contin- helps law firms hire the right laterals—those ues to experience an associate shortage as who fit the culture and will stick around for more and more law graduates choose other awhile. Seeing a demand to help improve career paths outside of the law firm setting. retention rates and stop or at least slow down “They don’t want law firm life,” said Natasha the steady drain of talent and resources, Innocenti, a 23-year veteran of legal recruit- Decipher uses sophisticated techniques to ing and a partner in the San Francisco office vet lateral candidates, uncovering every stone of the recruitment firm Mlegal. “And, more to find all the dirt on a candidate.