Health Care Issues

Henry C. Kevane is the managing partner of the San Francisco office of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP and has represented both debtors and creditors in bankruptcy matters nationwide for more than 30 years. He has worked with clients from a wide variety of industries, including the debtors in the chapter 11 cases of Verity Health System, Thorpe Insulation, Deltagen, Yipes Communications and Worlds of Wonder, and the creditors’ committees in the chapter 11 cases of SeraCare Life Sciences, America West Airlines and Guy F. Atkinson Co. He has also participated in several chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy cases, including the Mendocino Coast Health Care District, County of Orange, Adair County Hospital District (Kentucky), West Contra Costa Healthcare District, Palm Drive Health Care District and Heffernan Memorial Hospital District. 

Mr. Kevane has written and lectured on numerous cross-border, intellectual-property, federal asset-forfeiture and municipal-restructuring topics. He recently co-authored Asset Forfeiture and Insolvency: A Parallel Case Management Guide, published in October 2019 by the American Bar Association. He also authored Chapter 9 Bankruptcy Strategies, published by Thomson Reuters, and contributed to Debtor-in-Possession Financing: Funding a Chapter 11 Case, published by the American Bankruptcy Institute.

In 2015, Mr. Kevane was inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. He is vice chair of the ABA’s Business Bankruptcy Committee and a past chair of two committees of the State Bar of California, the Insolvency Law Committee and the Committee on Federal Courts. In addition, he is a board member and treasurer of the Ocean Avenue Association, a California public benefit corporation.

Mr. Kevane received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his J.D. from Southwestern Law School.

Samuel R. Maizel is a partner in Dentons US LLP in Los Angeles and focuses his practice on restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy in and out of court in all industries, and he leads the firm’s health care industry restructuring efforts nationwide. He has served as lead bankruptcy counsel to health care debtors and creditors’ committees, including in the recently completed chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Verity Health System of California Inc., and 15 related companies, the second-largest hospital bankruptcy in American history.

Before joining Dentons, Mr. Maizel was a partner at a national bankruptcy boutique firm (1997-2015) and represented the federal government nationwide as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Commercial Litigation Branch (1991-96). He has also served in U.S. Army’s The Judge Advocate General’s Corps (1985-91), including service in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, as well as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army (1977-85).

Mr. Maizel has lectured extensively, is widely published, and been interviewed on television and radio on topics related to the health care industry and bankruptcy. He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, is ranked in Chambers USA in both Bankruptcy and Health Care, and has regularly been named a “Super Lawyer.”

Mr. Maizel received his B.S. in 1977 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, his M.A. from Georgetown University in government in 1983 and his J.D. in 1985 from George Washington University School of Law, where he won the Jacob Burns Prize for excellence in appellate advocacy and served as president of the Moot Court Board.

Elspeth Delaney Paul is deputy general counsel for the Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, whose flagship is an 880-bed academic medical center in Los Angeles. Cedars-Sinai has consistently been named one of America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.

Prior to joining Cedars- Sinai, Ms. Paul was the general counsel of Verity Health System, formerly the Daughters of Charity Health System. Verity consisted of six hospitals, a statewide medical foundation, multiple provider joint ventures and an offshore self-insurance trust. In 2018, Verity filed for chapter 11 protection. During her tenure, Ms. Paul led the organization through what was at the time the largest health care bankruptcy in the U.S. She also spent several years at law firms, first with Latham & Watkins and then as a partner with Hooper, Lundy & Bookman before transitioning to in-house counsel with Dignity Health, where she was the associate general counsel managing the legal services for business transactions, physician integration, accountable care organizations, payor relations and a limited Knox- Keene health plan.

Ms. Paul is an expert in health care business transactions and hospital operations, as well as Stark, anti-kickback and tax-exemption rules. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Neil F. Luria serves as President and leads SOLIC’s Restructuring and Distressed Asset Support Services divisions. He specializes in capital restructuring, operational remediation, and alternative recovery strategy and execution support on behalf of the firm’s clients. He has significant experience negotiating and restructuring balance sheet obligations, overseeing asset divestitures and orderly liquidations, and pursuing major litigation settlements. Mr. Luria often serves in the capacity of Chief Restructuring Officer, fiduciary and board member roles where he is responsible for orchestrating operational and capital restructurings, as well as managing the wind-down and disposition planning and execution for a wide array of asset classes. While at SOLIC Capital Advisors (and its predecessors, Navigant Capital Advisors, LLC and Casas Benjamin & White, LLC), he has restructured and overseen the successful monetization of over 250 operating business units and numerous illiquid asset portfolios, with a particular emphasis in the healthcare, financial services, real estate, infrastructure, energy, professional services, and processing/distribution industries.

Mr. Luria has served as Chief Restructuring Officer and Liquidating Trustee for numerous entities including Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., the largest independent originator of residential mortgages, Louisiana Medical Center and Heart Hospital, and PBI Regional Medical Center. In addition, Mr. Luria has served as Liquidating Trustee of SageCrest LLC, Mortgage Lenders Network USA and Orthodontic Centers of America. He has also served as a member of the Liquidating Trust Committees of various entities across a range of industries. Mr. Luria has sat on numerous boards of directors including Spectrum Diagnostic Imaging, LLC, an operator of diagnostic imaging centers and Stampede Meats, Inc., one of the largest domestic meat processors. Mr. Luria has also served in various capacities in connection with the strategic disposition planning, execution, and orderly wind-down of a number of high profile hedge funds and private equity funds.

Before joining SOLIC Capital Advisors (and its predecessors), Mr. Luria served as crisis manager and President of BMJ Medical Management, Inc. (NASDAQ: BONS), an operator of ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers and physician practices. While at BMJ, he oversaw the company’s orderly liquidation efforts, leveraging creative litigation strategies that realized a 100% recovery to its Senior Secured Lenders. Prior to BMJ, he was engaged in the private practice of law at the firm of Jones Day Reavis & Pogue. Mr. Luria’s practice involved the representation of venture capital and leverage buyout funds in connection with their portfolio investments, related add-on acquisitions and subsequent divestiture transactions. In addition, he was involved in numerous securities offerings ranging from global initial public offerings to private placements.

Mr. Luria received his Juris Doctorate from the Boston University School of Law where he served on the Boston University Law Review and his undergraduate degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an AIRA certification as a Certified Insolvency & Restructuring Advisor and is also FINRA Series 63 and 79 licensed.

Jennifer E. Mercer is a partner with Paladin Management Group in Los Angeles and has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic communications counsel to companies large and small. With a career rooted in financial and business communications, she is an expert at creating both internal and external communication strategies around important initiatives, including corporate messaging, strategic planning, public relations, litigation support, and reputation- and crisis-management.

Ms. Mercer works closely with internal corporate teams and company advisors to develop and execute strategic communication programs that strengthen brands, minimize risk, and manage reputation. A veteran of the communications field with both corporate and agency experience, she has led complex communication campaigns for numerous companies across a broad range of industries including energy, financial services, homebuilding, retail, media, nonprofit, pharmaceuticals, professional services, restaurant, retail and technology.

Previously, Ms. Mercer was vice president and leader of the Strategic Communications group at Donlin Recano & Co., and before that she launched and led the Strategic Communications group at Epiq. Her other experience includes developing and managing critical communications programs for clients at some of the world’s leading public relations firms, including MWW Group, Hill & Knowlton and Sitrick & Company. She has also served as the director of public relations for the CEO of Hitachi Data Systems and as the director of communications of a leading information-management and professional services firm.

Ms. Mercer sits on the board of the Turnaround Management Association’s (TMA) Southern California Chapter as its Communications chair, is a board member of CARE (Credit Abuse Resistance Education), and is an active member of ABI, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She also is a published author and frequent speaker on topics related to organizational change and crisis management.

Ms. Mercer received her B.A. in 1994 from the University of California at San Diego.