In the mid-1990s, Reed assisted many hospitals with the restructuring and integration with physician practices, including the first physician/hospital managed care network in Georgia—The Piedmont Clinic, which now has over 1,500 participating physicians and six hospitals.

He also was the principal architect of many other healthcare restructurings, mergers and integrations in Georgia.

Reed was a founding board member for MedShare International, which sends unused medical devices and supplies to developing countries. His family foundation raised funds for shipping of these goods overseas.

Here is our Q&A with Reed:

How did you become interested in health care law? It must have been very different when you started compared to what it's like today. On my first day in practice, I was assigned some work for a hospital management company. In the months that followed, there was more and more to be done for that client. The partner I was working for was a great lawyer, and much of the work involved unique health care industry laws and business arrangements. We did not think of health care law as an area of practice for several years, but eventually the area began to emerge, and the benefits of really learning and applying an industry approach became clear to us. Like all young lawyers in firms, I was trying to make myself as valuable as possible, and this looked like an area with strong long-term trends, where some unique capabilities could be developed. I also may have had a bit of a natural affinity for it, as my father was a dentist and my mother worked as a nurse and in the business side of my father's practice. You created your firm's annual Health Law & Policy Forum in the early 1990s, when health care was becoming a highly contentious partisan issue. Do health care lawyers need to stay out of the political debate to serve their clients best, or do they need to take sides? Sometimes advocacy is a contribution health care lawyers can make, but to be most effective at just practicing law, I think standing back from the partisan debates is usually best. Health care is a huge part of the society, and every point of view is found in health care. As a lawyer focused on solving problems and on helping health care clients succeed, one needs to be able to relate to all of that diversity. What do you expect health care law to look like in 10 years, especially with regard to a national plan like the Affordable Care Act or a replacement? In 10 years, I think we will see an extension of trends we have been experiencing for a long time in health care. In the law itself and in the clients' businesses, there will be more complexity, and that will drive more narrow specialization by a lot of people. The law will struggle to keep up with technological change, and lawmakers will not act fast enough. There also may be growth in health care law specialization in other countries, borrowing from our experience here. I think that the laws contained in the Affordable Care Act will just evolve, without any huge disruptions. What is one of your proudest accomplishments in the law, and what challenge did you have to overcome so you could achieve it? Aside from building the health care practice at King & Spalding, a proud moment was completing the merger of the National Health Lawyers Association and the American Academy of Healthcare Attorneys, to form the American Health Lawyers Association. I represented one of the prior organizations and had the primary responsibility for absorbing lots of input and proposing a transaction with elements that would provide a strong foundation for moving forward. The challenge was to satisfy most of the 47 lawyers on two boards of directors. The merger took, and the organization has over 12,000 members now, with over 200 from King & Spalding. What part of legal practice should young lawyers pay attention to, if they want to have success like you have in their careers? A client told me last month that I have been good at listening, at having a desire to learn and at not always trying to show how much more I know than the client does—so I guess that's one thing. I would advise young professionals of all types to take advantage of all the learning that is available now on human nature. Law practice in particular involves constant efforts to influence people and predict what people will do, so a better appreciation of what makes us all tick can be very valuable.