Prestigious Heritage

The men and women who have led the Section exemplify the diversity of the Section’s members. The Section’s chairs have been members of large law national and even international firms, small, boutique firms, in-house counsel, and government attorneys. They have hailed from Washington, D.C., Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, California, New Mexico, Indiana, Oregon, Virginia, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Maryland, and now Mississippi. On a personal note, the past chairs have been the most encouraging mentors on my journey through leadership in the Section. One of my favorite memories of this year as chair is looking at the second row in the meeting hall on the opening day of Emerging Issues in Healthcare Law, while I was delivering the State of the Section address and seeing a row of past chairs smiling encouragingly at me while I bragged about our Section leadership. The past chairs love the Section and the contributions the Section has made to the health law bar.

In an effort to continue to capture the wisdom of the past chairs in the continued development of the Section, we created the Past Chairs’ Advisory Board to provide advice to the Chair and Director on specific projects designated to the Board by the Chair and the Director. The Board is chaired by immediate past Section Chair, Bill Horton, a partner at Jones Walker in Birmingham, Alabama. The Board has been active this year on projects including work on the Section’s Strategic Plan and development of processes for appointment of the Section’s Board of Governors member.

The depth of knowledge and experience of this group in is incredible. E. Paul Herrington, better known to us as the “Father of the Section” is the Associate General Counsel of Humana, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. Howard Wall, who was instrumental in developing the Section’s premier live program, is the Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Secretary of RegionalCare Hospital Partners in Nashville. Greg Pemberton, who not only served the Section as Chair in 2005-2006, but also served as the Section’s House of Delegates member for 12 years, is now retired but practiced law for over 40 years at Ice Miller in Indianapolis. Tony Patterson, currently one of the Section’s delegates to the House of Delegates, served the Section as Chair in 2004-2005, practiced law at Norton Rose Fulbright in Texas for over 20 years and now serves as Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of Kalispell Regional Healthcare in Kalispell, Montana. Vickie Yates Brown is currently the appointed secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Vickie served as Chair of the Section in 2008-2009. Linda Baumann was instrumental in developing the Section’s premier policy live program called the Washington Health Law Summit. Linda served the Section as Chair in 2010-2011. Linda is a partner in the healthcare practice at Arent Fox in Washington, D.C.

Andy Demetriou served the Section as Chair from 2007-2008. Andy currently serves as a partner at Lamb & Kawakami in Los Angeles and a manager of Berkley Research Group where he provides advice on strategy, transactions and health analytics as well as expert services. While chair of the Section, membership grew to over 9,000 lawyers, students and associate members. Paul DeMuro, now practicing with Broad and Cassel in its Fort Lauderdale office, served as chair from 2006-2007. Under Paul’s leadership, the Section gained members and the Council had a memorable Council meeting in Germany.

The Section is known for its “Davids.” David Douglass developed the Section’s highly successful leadership training meeting, moving the meeting from September to July, and encouraging the Section’s officers to develop intensive training sessions. David served as chair in 2012-2013 and is co-managing partner of Sheppard Mullin’s D.C. office. David Hilgers completed an extensive Strategic Plan for the Section in 2010 and moved the Section to think innovatively to encourage membership initiatives. David is a member of Husch Blackwell’s Healthcare, Life Sciences & Education team in Austin, Texas. David Johnson led the Section as Chair in 2011-2012. David encouraged the Section to develop an ADR task force. He practices healthcare law at Montgomery & Andrews in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Kathye Scully-Hayes served the Section as Chair from 2013-2014 and became the first chair from the Government Sector. Kathye is an Administrative Law Judge with the Social Security Administration in Maryland. Kathye brought a unique perspective to the Section and encouraged its growth in the government attorneys sector. Michael Clark practices in the white collar crime area with his firm, Duane Morris, in Houston, Texas. Under Michael’s leadership in 2014-2015, the Section developed the framework for a Military and Veteran’s Task Force which was established last year during Bill Horton’s tenure as Chair.

The above named Chairs have influenced my time as a leader in the Section, but the other past chairs equally contributed to the growth and influence of the Health Law Section. Jay Christiansen served a two-year stint as chair from 1997-1999; Patricia Meador was the first female chair in 2000-2001. Robert Roth served from 2001-2002, Sara Keller from 2002-2003 and Bonnie Brier from 2003-2004. The Section and the greater ABA is proud to have such a prestigious heritage. Thank you all for your service to the Section and the health law bar.

Your Chair,
Joyce Hall

Mississippi Trivia People don't always think of Mississippi when they are interested in watching world class ballet, but, Jackson, Mississippi is one of only four cities of the world sanctioned by The International Theater-Dance Committee to host the International Ballet Competition. The other three are Moscow, Russia, Varna, Bulgaria and Helsinki, Finland.