Health Care Litigation

When the founders of a successful regional healthcare delivery system were faced with a hostile take-over from their well-financed private equity investor, they came to us. The private equity fund stretched the company thin with promises of significant investments and then, when the money was needed the most, demanded they give up control of the company they founded and grew into one of the Portland Business Journal’s “Most Admired Companies.” When the founders came to us, their backs were against the wall; the private equity investor filed a mountain of paperwork seeking appointment of a receiver, and sought a temporary restraining order with a hearing scheduled on one day’s notice. Represented by a large international firm, the private equity fund …

Because public agencies are under tight deadlines to produce requested records, it takes swift and decisive action and knowledge of administrative and civil procedures to challenge a disclosure decision in court. When the Oregon Department of Justice ordered another state agency to disclose personal financial records of over 200 shareholders of a private corporation to the Register-Guard newspaper, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of the affected shareholders against the newspaper and agency custodian. We navigated several procedural challenges from the defendants and ultimately succeeded in certifying a class action that ensured that shareholders’ privacy concerns could be efficiently presented to the court. Before we could have a trial about whether the shareholders’ records were exempt under the “personal privacy” …