Andy McQueen of American Physician Partners.

The chief legal officer of American Physician Partners has been made the company’s first chief development officer, the company recently announced.

Andy McQueen started in his new role Aug. 1 and is based in the company’s Brentwood, Tennessee, headquarters. In the newly created role, McQueen is responsible for the planning and execution of the company’s business development efforts. Those efforts include the acquisition of physician groups and partnerships with hospitals and health systems.

He will continue to lead the legal department of American Physician Partners until the company determines what its next step for legal is, a spokesperson said Monday. McQueen became the chief legal officer of the company in 2017.

“I’ve enjoyed playing a role in American Physician Partner’s tremendous growth over the past two years and look forward to leading the business development effort going forward, as I believe we offer a strong and unique value proposition to hospitals, health systems, and physicians,” McQueen said in a statement to Corporate Counsel on Monday.

Before joining American Physician Partners, McQueen worked at Bass, Berry & Sims as a partner. He has also worked as assistant general counsel at Spheris. McQueen is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. Before becoming a lawyer, McQueen worked as a tax consultant at Ernst & Young.

John Rutledge, president and CEO of American Physician Partners, said McQueen’s past experience in development will make him a great asset.

“American Physician Partners has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past several years, both through acquisitions and organically,” Rutledge said in the press release. “Andy has played a pivotal role in these efforts, and we wanted to take this opportunity to formalize the development role under Andy to take APP to the next level in our evolution.”

McQueen’s promotion to the C-suite is part of an ongoing trend in which companies have given general counsels or chief legal officers higher responsibilities beyond the legal department. In July, Ideaya Biosciences Inc. gave Paul Stone, its general counsel, the additional role of chief financial officer.

American Physician Partners was founded in 2015 and provides an alternative to hospitals for their clinical outsourcing needs. The company has 120 care sites in 15 states.