Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP is pleased to announce that Hoyt Y. Sze and Margia Corner have joined the firm as healthcare partners in San Francisco. Most recently Sze and Corner served as co-interim deputy general counsels for the University of California where they served as the principal legal advisors for the UC Board of Regents Health Services Committee and oversaw legal matters across the university system’s expansive healthcare network, which includes six academic medical centers, 20 health professional schools and eight community hospitals, including one freestanding children’s hospital.
Sheppard Mullin’s Healthcare industry team continues to grow at a rapid pace. In the last 12 months, 11 healthcare partners have joined the firm coast-to-coast, further solidifying Sheppard Mullin as the destination for top-tier healthcare talent.
“As our healthcare clients continue to grow and innovate, having lawyers with Margia and Hoyt’s unparalleled knowledge and expertise is vital to helping our clients achieve their goals,” said Luca Salvi, chair of Sheppard Mullin. “We are thrilled to welcome Hoyt and Margia to the firm.”
Sze is a sophisticated healthcare lawyer who focuses on healthcare investigations and white collar defense. Over the course of his career, he has represented academic medical centers, health systems and other healthcare providers, health plans and device and drug manufacturers in fraud and abuse matters, particularly those relating to civil False Claims Act, physician self-referral (Stark Law) and anti-kickback issues. He also handles complex healthcare investigations as well as litigation involving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the California Office of the Attorney General and other federal and state agencies.
At the University of California, Sze served as a system expert and lead counsel on healthcare fraud, abuse and conflict of interest matters. He advised the university in responses to federal and state criminal and civil investigations including related to subpoenas, civil investigative demands, self-disclosures and enforcement actions generally. Sze also was the system expert and lead counsel in responding to foreign influence and research security investigations involving the university, including matters involving other support non-disclosure in federal research grant proposals, export control and Higher Education Act Section 117 foreign gift and contract reporting. Sze also led the university, as well as other large health systems through privacy and cybersecurity matters, including clinical “big data” and artificial intelligence issues, ransomware and phishing incidents, data breaches and security incident protocols. Sze has worked closely with campus, health, research and information security compliance units throughout his career and, before the university, served as chief compliance and privacy officer of a large health system. Sze received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and his J.D., cum laude, from Cornell University.
As an experienced healthcare attorney in academic and non-profit health systems, Corner helps clients develop innovative approaches to transition to value-based models of care. She has extensive regulatory experience, particularly with respect to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care. She works with state and federal regulatory agencies to help clients navigate complex licensing, accreditation and other regulatory requirements to serve patients in California and beyond.
During her tenure in the University of California’s Office of General Counsel, Corner served as the lead healthcare regulatory attorney advising the university and UC Health’s executives on matters involving federal and state regulatory requirements governing health system operations, such as the innovative Medi-Cal financing and supplemental payment programs needed to improve the financial sustainability of the university’s commitment to the Medi-Cal population. She also served as regulatory counsel at Sutter Health, supporting a system-wide task force to guide the health system’s successful implementation of clinical quality and value-based care requirements enacted in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. Corner received her B.A., with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford University, her J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the University of Michigan Law School and her MPH in Health Management and Policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Eric Klein, leader of the firm’s Healthcare industry team added, “Hoyt and Margia bring their deep knowledge of what works and what doesn’t to provide practical advice to our clients to ensure that their innovations and goals have the best chance of succeeding in today’s heavily scrutinized healthcare industry. We have had the opportunity to work with them over the years as clients and colleagues and are delighted to have them join our team.”
Commenting on joining the firm, Sze and Corner added, "We are excited to be joining Sheppard Mullin's preeminent healthcare team. As is often the case, we anticipate that the transition to new leadership of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Justice will mean new priorities related to federal health care programs and present new challenges and opportunities for health care providers, insurers and others across the healthcare industry. We look forward to helping our clients successfully navigate these challenges."
Sheppard Mullin is driving the healthcare industry’s most significant transactions and joint ventures for hospital, health systems and academic medical centers. Recent examples include:
- UCI Health, the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine, in its $975 million acquisition of Tenet Healthcare Corporation’s Pacific Coast Network, allowing the hospital system to expand its ability to improve unrestricted access to healthcare in the region.
- Prospect Health System in its definitive agreement to sell certain of its businesses and assets, including a fully accredited acute care hospital with 177 licensed beds, to Astrana Health Inc. for $745 million, creating a national healthcare delivery platform that will provide technology-driven, longitudinal and patient-centered care to a combined 1.7 million members across the country.
- UCLA Health in its acquisition of HCA Healthcare’s West Hills Hospital and Medical Center to address hospital inpatient capacity needs and allow UCLA Health to provide world-class care to more patients across the region.
- Represented Duke University and Duke University Health System in the acquisition and integration of the Private Diagnostic Clinic, as well as in its partnership with WakeMed Health to create joint operating agreements for the collaboration of both Cancer Care Plus+ and Heart Care Plus+.
About Sheppard Mullin’s Healthcare Team
Sheppard Mullin’s 230-attorney national Healthcare industry team has been named a Health Care Practice Group of the Year by Law360 four times in seven years. Working in all sectors of healthcare with industry-leading and growing companies, disruptive start-up clients and healthcare-focused investors, Sheppard Mullin is a go-to firm for innovative transactions and joint ventures, regulatory solutions, population health management, global risk and value-based contracting, technology transactions and privacy matters. The team offers significant experience in cybersecurity, tax, non-profit, employment and labor, real estate, artificial intelligence, antitrust, litigation and finance.