What are some of your proudest recent achievements? While my career has involved representing health providers, insurers, state governments and health care technology companies in a wide variety of matters, the most satisfying work has been my representation of safety net providers in New York. This representation has spanned my 40-year career and has involved creation of a 2B tax exempt bond program, called the Secured Hospital Program, to rebuild hospitals located in New York's most underserved neighborhoods; the establishment of the Primary Care Development Corporation, to fund neighborhood clinics in poor communities; and, most recently, representation of the NYC Safety Net Coalition to advocate for more sustainable funding to support the missions of safety net hospitals that serve as anchor institutions in their communities. Additionally, during the pandemic, I cofounded the NYC COVID Rapid Response Coalition—a cross-sector team of more than 75 New York health care leaders to support medically vulnerable and underserved New Yorkers during the COVID-19 crisis, aiming to remove barriers to health care and getting help where it was most needed—for which I was named a 2021 Champion of Public Health by Public Health Solutions.

Name a lawyer or mentor whose leadership inspired you. I was fortunate to work with two lawyers early in my career who exemplify the best of what it means to be a lawyer and with whom I have had the pleasure of working at various points during my own career. When working for the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1978-79, I worked for Richard Cotton (Rick) and Richard Beattie (Dick), both of whom combined impressive careers in private practice with public service. Rick became general counsel of NBCUniversal, the Board Chair of the Primary Care Development Corporation (a position for which I helped recruit him) and a leading not-for-profit that focuses on the development of primary care in low-income communities. He now serves as the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Dick is the senior chairman of Simpson Thacher and has throughout his career done a remarkable job combining private law practice with civic engagement. Recently, Dick served on the Board of the NYC COVID-19 Rapid Response Coalition.