Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Healthcare Litigation

Manatt’s full-service Healthcare Litigation practice is committed to protecting the interests of providers and payors.  We offer an unparalleled combination of deep understanding of the complex and dynamic healthcare field, strong relationships with, and high-level access to, the regulatory, legislative, and enforcement entities and officials critical to your business, and the ability and experience to take complex matters to trial.  

Our ability to provide outstanding service to our litigation clients is enhanced significantly by our extensive healthcare regulatory and corporate practices.  Our experience in the nation’s two most innovative and complex healthcare law environments - California and New York – when combined with our respected government advocacy capabilities in the District of Columbia and major state capitals, means we can provide healthcare clients with unsurpassed legal and business advice.  We have been at the forefront of virtually every major provider and health plan litigation issue in California in the past five years.  

Our substantial healthcare regulatory and corporate practice also allows our litigation clients to obtain legal counseling and advice when seeking to structure their operations to avoid litigation down the road.  The fact that we have generally addressed these issues before and do not need to learn the law as we go along, not only gives our clients the benefit of experienced advisors, but offers considerable cost savings as well.  

Manatt in Action

At the end of the day, results are what count; and, simply put, we win cases.  Over the past five years we have prevailed for our clients in noteworthy, precedent-setting actions, including cases that have been described by pundits (and sometimes even by our clients) as unwinnable.  For example: 

• The entire HMO system in California was on trial in a lawsuit for our client, a major California health plan.  At issue was whether the state’s health plans can be held responsible for decisions they delegate to medical groups.  The plaintiff had been denied certain medical services by the delegated medical group, including an MRI, and later was found to have a brain tumor.  We prevailed before a Los Angeles jury at trial, while also blocking filmmaker Michael Moore from turning the jury trial into a circus. The Court of Appeal subsequently handed down a unanimous opinion, adopting our legal arguments and making new law in California. 
• We recently prevailed on behalf of our client, a hospital system, in an  important, published appellate decision in the medical staff arena.  The decision affirms the ultimate authority of the hospital's governing body to decide who gets to practice at the hospital.  In Ellison v Sequoia Health Services, a Judicial Review Committee ("JRC") refused to recommend corrective action regarding a physician who was dishonest about his professional background and qualifications. The JRC had itself found the physician was dishonest, but it would not recommend any remedy to match its finding.  That left it to the hospital's board to act, which it did by terminating the physician's medical staff membership and privileges. 
• We prevailed for a California health plan in a much-watched jury trial in California concerning the carrier’s right to rescind a plan agreement based on misrepresentations made by the plaintiffs in their application for coverage.  This was the first health plan rescission case tried to a jury.  
• We successfully defended a nursing home management company and several affiliates in a putative class action challenging the standard of care at the facilities and alleging violations of various state and federal regulations.  The court sustained our demurrer without leave to amend, concluding that the plaintiff lacked standing to pursue a Consumers Legal Remedies Act claim. 
• We obtained summary judgment for a multi-hospital system in a class action suit claiming that our clients’ hospitals throughout Southern California conspired to suppress salaries for nurses. The lawsuit is similar to other cases pending across the United States and was the first one where summary judgment was obtained.  
• We have acted as lead counsel for a wide spectrum of healthcare entities in more than 25 Medicare/Medicaid-related matters, including cases brought under the False Claims Act, and more than 100 Medicare/Medicaid civil and criminal investigations.  The subject matters of these cases ranged from billing, quality-of-care and wrongful death issues, to failure by government agencies to follow applicable statutes and regulations.  We have also litigated a variety of cases for Medicare Advantage plans, including successfully establishing federal preemption and obtaining dismissals for failure to exhaust the Medicare Advantage review procedures.  
• We represented a health plan in a RICO action brought by a nationwide class of 900,000 physicians.  Filed in 2003, the suit alleged that every one of our client’s health plans in the country had engaged in a RICO conspiracy to systematically underpay physicians.  Over the years this suit was pending, almost every other insurer decided to settle for hundreds of millions of dollars in cash payments to the class, along with commitments to make important business changes over a multi-year period.  Similarly, almost all of the defendant health plans opted to settle, but our client did not.  In early 2009, the District Court in Miami, Florida, granted our client’s motion to dismiss with prejudice.   
• After a decade of unsuccessful attempts to merge and having dealt with prosecutions filed by the Department of Justice and the state of Florida, a Florida-based hospital system hired Manatt. Working with the government, we secured early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and, within a year, handled a merger of the two hospital systems without litigation. 
• We prevailed for a health plan client on ERISA preemption grounds in a class action that asserted various state law causes of action alleging that our client had violated the emergency care provisions of the Knox-Keene Act.  The plaintiff argued that ERISA could not preempt claims arising under California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), which at the time did not require a plaintiff to have suffered any injury in order to maintain a claim.  Among other arguments, the plaintiff asserted – in a question of first impression – that if anyone, including an uninjured person, could bring a UCL claim under California law, persons in ERISA plans certainly could do so as well.  The trial court rejected this argument, holding that ERISA preempted the claims.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed in a published decision.  
• In a case of first impression affirming dismissal of a UCL action against our healthcare provider client, the appellate court held that the trial court properly abstained from adjudicating claims that would have required the court to usurp the assigned state agency’s regulatory authority over nurse staffing. 
• On behalf of a New York health plan, we challenged denial by the New York Insurance Department regarding proposed reconfiguration of our health insurer client’s rating region and obtained an order from the New York State Supreme Court requiring the Department to grant our client’s request.  
• We successfully represented a major healthcare system in a first impression decision affirming dismissal of a proposed class action complaint that alleged system-wide violations of the California Labor Code and UCL based upon alleged failure to pay for rest and meal breaks for labor and delivery nurses. 
• We represented hospitals and nursing facilities in obtaining dismissal of litigation brought by Erin Brockovich seeking to recover sums allegedly due the federal government under the Medicare Secondary Payer statute. 
• On behalf of a nursing home provider, we obtained dismissal of a UCL class action alleging unlawful and unfair practices relating to the purchase of indemnity insurance for claims made under California's Elder Abuse Act. 
• We represented a dental service provider in litigation concerning regulatory compliance and corporate governance. 
• On behalf of a physician group, we obtained a UCL permanent injunction precluding one of its competitors from accepting unlawful kickbacks for patient referrals, as well as an award of attorneys’ fees for our client.

Diversity at Manatt

Manatt considers diversity to be a fundamental component of our institutional identity. As a law firm, we have a professional responsibility, and as individuals, we have a personal responsibility to our respective communities. Incorporating diversity into our culture allows us to enhance the high-quality, creativity and excellence in legal services that our clients have come to expect.

Manatt has invested a significant amount of human and financial resources in our own diversity program. Our philosophy is simple: include women and minority lawyers at all levels of Firm leadership and promote diversity in the legal profession through our support and active involvement in various minority civic and bar organizations.

The mix of our minority and women attorneys has consistently exceeded the national average among the country's top law firms. Our talented mix includes minority and women lawyers serving as heads of offices, members of the firm's Board of Directors and management team, and chairs of some of the firm's most important practice groups.

Inclusive Culture
Our progressive culture allows us to maintain a growing mix of women and minority lawyers, and the results illustrate this commitment.  The American Lawyer ranked our Firm 29th (in the top 12%) on its Diversity Scorecard for the largest 250 law firms in the country for 2009.  Multi Cultural Law Magazine included our Firm on its 2008 lists of the Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity, Top 25 Law Firms for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and Top 25 Law Firms for Openly Gay/Lesbian Americans.

Despite our progress and diversity success, we can do better.  Our challenge extends far beyond exceeding national averages.  Our plan cannot succeed if we focus only on recruiting minority and women attorneys.  The true challenge and measure for achieving success lies in creating and preserving an inclusive environment where our minority and women lawyers will stay, progress, prosper and succeed.  We have implemented a formal diversity program designed to enhance our recruiting and retention of diverse attorneys through an executive mentoring program intended to cultivate personally and professionally meaningful relationships between our diverse lawyers and our partners. 

Our commitment to diversity exists in a living document – a plan – that is concrete, easy to understand and publicly available.  The plan demonstrates to every law school student, lateral associate candidate, lateral partner candidate, recruiter, existing client, and potential client that we are serious about creating a workplace that mirrors the breadth of the communities where we and our clients live and work.

We focus on the following key areas to accomplish our mission.

Targeted Recruitment Effort
At Manatt, recruiting women and minority attorneys does not end on law school campuses. Our recruiting efforts focus on locating talented women and minority lawyers at all levels. At law schools, we seek out and interview students who share our core values in ways shaped and enhanced by their own experience. Manatt's 2005 Summer Program was the most diverse in the Firm's history. Our nine 2005 Summer Associates included two African-American students, three Hispanic students, one Asian-American student and three Caucasian students. Five of these nine students were women.

Mentoring as a Cornerstone
Minority attorneys who join Manatt as new or lateral hires immediately become the focus of a mentoring program. They are paired with senior attorneys who take an active role in encouraging their career development. Mentors actively work with their protégés, helping them form business plans and involving them in firm-wide marketing and development opportunities. Management holds mentors accountable for their roles and their protégés' progress at the Firm, including reviewing their efforts as part of the evaluation and compensation process.

Access to Opportunity
Success is a matter of talent and opportunity. At Manatt, we believe that the key to retaining talented minority attorneys -- and therefore the key to the success of our diversity efforts -- is providing a distinctive experience that offers clear access to professional accomplishment. We provide women and minority attorneys with important responsibilities and leadership opportunities in client development activities, complex litigation, large transactional matters and high-profile community and civic organizations. We also encourage and support minority and women attorneys who take leadership positions within the firm and outside in the community at large.

Long-Term Commitment
We challenge ourselves to make our young lawyers feel valued, involved and invested in the future of the firm. We know that they will eventually occupy the most important financial, management and executive positions at Manatt. Our professionals thrive in an atmosphere that encourages and supports responsibility, ambition, and entrepreneurship. We offer true opportunity equal to individual commitment to success and advancement. That's the history of opportunity at Manatt, where professionals with talent and drive are rewarded with a nurturing, dynamic and energizing climate.

Promoting Diversity
Promoting diversity in the legal profession requires both an investment of money and time. Our women and minority attorneys are prominently involved and hold leadership positions in some of the most important minority civic and bar organizations in the country including:

• Asian Americans of Equality
• Asian Pacific American Legal Center
• Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association
• California Association of Black Lawyers
• California Black Chamber of Commerce
• California Women's Law Center
• Chilean Association of Attorneys
• D.C. Commission on Asian & Pacific Islander Affairs
• Hispanic National Bar Association
• Inner City Law Center
• International Human Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of City of New York
• Korean American Bar Association
• Korean American Coalition
• L.A. Conservation Corps
• La Raza Galeria Posada
• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Urban League
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
• NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund Board
• Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association
• The Association of Women in International Trade
• Women Lawyers Association
• Women's Bar Association of District of Columbia
• Women's Forum of Washington D.C.