Buchanan Grabs Phila. Health Lawyer From Eckert Seamans
Rafael Villalobos Jr., former in-house counsel for Aria Health, has joined Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.
January 17, 2019 at 02:20 PM
3 minute read
Philadelphia health care lawyer Rafael Villalobos Jr. is taking his practice from one Pittsburgh-based firm to another, trading firms he worked with when he was in-house at a local hospital system.
Villalobos has joined Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Philadelphia office as counsel in the health care and litigation departments, coming from Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. Earlier he had relationships with both firms while serving as chief legal counsel for Aria Health.
Aria merged with Jefferson Health in 2016, so Villalobos' in-house position was eliminated and he went into private practice at Eckert Seamans. Since then, he said, he has developed a book of business in the high six-figures. His in-house experience helped in that effort, he said, lending him additional credibility with prospective clients.
“A lot of health law attorneys have never sat as a member of a senior executive team … and didn't work in a clinical hospital setting day-in and day-out,” he said. “As a result I understand the culture, the nuances and the complexities within health care that some others don't.”
Villalobos started his career as a medical malpractice lawyer, but after he gained exposure to other areas of law in his position at Aria, his practice expanded to providing other services for health care clients, such as employment litigation, governance, controlled substance law and health law.
His move to Buchanan, he said, will help him to continue to expand the ways in which he serves clients. “Buchanan is really branded and situated as a health law firm in many ways,” he said. The 450-lawyer firm has more than 50 health care lawyers, according to its website.
“Eckert is a good firm,” he said, but “they do not have a big presence in the health care segment outside professional liability, and that was somewhat of a limitation for me.”
Villalobos' clients include hospitals, health systems, ambulatory surgical centers, physicians, a medical school, a medical marijuana company and a large Boston-based physician practice with over 2,000 physicians, he said.
Until Aria's merger with Jefferson, Villalobos was the health system's chief legal counsel for more than 10 years, also serving as a senior vice president and director of insurance and claims.
“As the former chief legal counsel for a major hospital system, Raf has a deep understanding of the multifaceted regulatory and compliance landscape and operations of a health care system,” David Gordon, co-chair of Buchanan's litigation section, said in a statement. “He is able to utilize this experience to guide our clients regarding risk avoidance and complex, high-stakes litigation.”
Before that, Villalobos was a medical malpractice defense attorney for about 13 years. He was of counsel at McKissock & Hoffman for less than one year prior to taking the Aria position. Before that, he was a shareholder at Christie, Pabarue, Mortensen & Young, now Christie & Young.
Eckert Seamans did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Villalobos' departure. Late last year, in Pittsburgh, Eckert Seamans hired lawyer Christine Boronyak Bowers away from Buchanan, bringing her on as a member in its tax and employee benefits and executive compensation practices.
Read More
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All'Grave Matter of Serious Consequences': Why a Missouri Judge Sanctioned a Top Kirkland & Ellis Attorney
10 minute readMorgan Lewis Snatches Up Former Orrick Partner in Boston
Life Sciences M&A Set to Boom, Litigation to Remain Steady Under New Trump Admin
5 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Read the Document: 'Google Must Divest Chrome', DOJ Says, Proposing Remedies in Search Monopoly Case
- 2Voir Dire Voyeur: I Find Out What Kind of Juror I’d Be
- 3When It Comes to Local Law 97 Compliance, You’ve Gotta Have (Good) Faith
- 4Legal Speak at General Counsel Conference East 2024: Virginia Griffith, Director of Business Development at OutsideGC
- 5Legal Speak at General Counsel Conference East 2024: Bill Tanenbaum, Partner & Chair, AI & Data Law Practice Group at Moses Singer
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250