Several health-care lawyers from Baker & Hostetler LLP joined Morgan Lewis in Houston, significantly expanding the firm’s health care and litigation practices, Morgan Lewis announced today.
Three partners—Scott McBride, John Petrelli, and Gregory Etzel—will join the firm. Also joining the firm is healthcare of counsel, Summer Swallow, two health-care associates, and a senior policy analyst. The addition of the health-care team creates a dedicated practice for health care in the Houston office, said Steve Wall, Morgan Lewis managing partner.
This seven person addition also follows a November addition of two health care partners in November, Susan Harris and Donna Clark, also from Baker & Hostetler. Etzel is currently the vice president of legal affairs at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Prior to his position at UTMB, Etzel was also a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP.
The Houston office currently consists of litigation, corporate, labor and employment and intellectual property lawyers, Wall said. Before this group joined Morgan Lewis, the firm did not have health care regulatory and compliance expertise in Houston.
The new group also has a very active False Claims Act practice, Wall said. The attorneys represented a number of health care providers. The firm had been working since spring off this year to recruit the group.
McBride, who was formerly Baker & Hostetler’s health-care practice coleader, concentrates on compliance and enforcement issues, such as False Claims Act litigation, internal and external investigations and regulatory enforcement proceedings. Petrelli focuses on litigation. In addition to health care litigation, he also handles complex commercial and white collar matters across other industries, such as energy, government contracting, and transportations.
Swallow’s practice focuses on health care industry with a focus on regulatory and compliance issues. She represents and advises hospitals, health systems and physician groups.
“This is a long time coming,” Wall said. “We were looking at this group for a long time and we talked to them for a long time because they were coming from a really good firm. We sold them on our platform.”
Baker & Hostetler did not respond for a request for comment from Bloomberg Law.
The addition of Etzel was also important because as current general counsel at UTMB. Etzel brings real in-house experience and what legal challenges medical providers face, Wall said. He will join the firm in the first week of January.
The firm is looking to expand its health care practice nationally, including in Washington, Chicago, California and Texas, Wall said.
“Health care is a growing industry,” Wall said. “Health care reform creates huge issues for our clients, both provider side and payor side, insurance companies. Our health care practice represents both.”
In the Houston office, which opened in 2007, the firm currently has an active recruitment strategy underway for the corporate practice and the litigation practice, Wall said. The firm is also looking to grow its energy practice, Wall said.
Contact the reporter responsible for this story: Nushin Huq at nhuq@bloomberglaw.com.
Contact the editors responsible for this story: Casey Sullivan csullivan@bloomberglaw.com and Nicholas Datlowe at ndatlowe@bloomberglaw.com.
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