Cleary Rejoins Akin Gump After Stint With HHS General Counsel

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld re-signed a prominent U.S. Health and Human Services Department attorney two months after the firm lost a health care legal team to Ropes & Gray.

Kelly Cleary, who is joining the firm’s health care and life sciences practice in Washington, until recently served three years as deputy general counsel at HHS, and as chief legal officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

During that time she served as lead attorney in department initiatives to address drug pricing, and to modernize the agency’s anti-kickback and physician self-referral regulations.

Cleary will handle health care ...