Crowell Nabs 16 Reed Smith Partners in National Health Care Push

Sixteen lawyers are leaving Reed Smith in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas to bolster the ranks of Crowell & Moring’s health care practice.

The exodus is led by Martin J. Bishop, who will co-chair Crowell’s health care group, and includes 15 other partners who represent some of the country’s largest health care companies and insurers, including Health Care Services Corp. Dozens of other lawyers are expected to make the jump in coming weeks, increasing headcounts in Illinois, California and Texas, Crowell said in a statement.

The firm already boasts more than 100 health care practitioners, according to its website. The additions will “reshape this sector of the legal industry nationally,” Philip T. Inglima, chair of Crowell & Moring’s management board, said in an interview.

The tranche of Crowell hires is the latest in a series of steps by the firm to bolster its health and life sciences work. The firm in June merged with Faber Daeufer & Itrato, a 24-lawyer boutique that exclusively handled transactional and corporate work for companies and investors in the life sciences industry. The firm last year added Stephen Bentfield as a partner with the health care group in Denver.

Crowell is creating one of the biggest “and in our personal views, the best” teams in the sector, Bishop said. “We’ve got the deepest bench in health care, in terms of outside lawyers, and this is exactly what we think our clients are looking for,” he said.

A Reed Smith spokesperson said the departures would remove some conflicts and allow the firm to “respond to a long-standing demand to expand client relationships, partnering with new healthcare organizations and attracting even broader talent.”

Health Cases

Bishop and his Reed Smith colleagues have been part of big cases, including suing the US Department of Health and Human Services over hundreds of millions of dollars in insurer bonuses. They have also litigated issues ranging from “surprising billing” and ERISA cases to transgender and abortion-related coverage issues in state health care programs.

The hires include Rebecca Hanson, Thomas Hardy and Alexandra Lucas—three lawyers who came with Bishop to Reed Smith from Foley & Lardner’s Chicago office in 2015. Along with other partners Daniel Hofmeister, Jason Mayer, Kevin Tessier, and Bryan Webster, they’ll nearly double the size of the Crowell’s health care team in Chicago.

“The addition of Marty and his team creates a true ‘one stop shop’ for both our payer and provider clients and bolsters our ability to provide comprehensive counsel on cutting-edge health care issues,” said Troy Barsky, co-chair of Crowell’s health care group. It adds to the firm’s “geographic diversity that our clients demand, having knowledge and experience in localities that are very challenging from a regulatory standpoint.”

Michelle Cheng, Lorenzo Gasparetti, Junga Kim, Amir Shlesinger, and Kenneth Smersfelt are joining as partners in Crowell’s Los Angeles office, which has nine lawyers, according to the company website. Karen Braje is joining as a partner in the firm’s San Francisco branch.

The moves include partner Scott Williams, who will open a new Dallas office for the firm. Crowell is following several Big Law rivals in opening Texas offices, as last month Willkie Farr & Gallagher announced its expansion into the Dallas-Fort Worth market.

The firm expects to launch its Texas office with more than six lawyers, and to grow beyond health care into government contract, antitrust and commercial litigation practices, Inglima said.