Robert R. Hearn’s practice focuses on representing health care providers and other highly regulated enterprises in litigation and with regard to regulatory, compliance and other business and operational matters.
In the litigation arena, Mr. Hearn’s work centers around defending medical, professional engineering and other technical and scientific services companies against personal injury and wrongful death claims, as well as in various commercial disputes implicating their operations. His litigation work regularly spans the states in which Phelps maintains offices..
Mr. Hearn has a long history of performing wide-ranging legal work in the clinical laboratory industry. For the last 15 years, he has represented a national laboratory in an array of litigation matters, including claims arising from cytology and histology interpretations, prenatal genetic testing, result reporting discrepancies, blood coagulation studies, FDA-regulated tissue transplant testing, microbiology cultures, and phlebotomy and specimen collection injuries.
He focuses extensively on defending misdiagnosis of cancer cases, particularly those arising from Pap smear screening and the diagnosis of dermatological and breast pathology. Mr. Hearn’s litigation work in the laboratory industry has fostered a strong skill set in cultivating and challenging specialized expert opinion testimony and a heightened ability to present technical issues to lay audiences.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Hearn was a partner in a prominent D.C.-based white collar criminal defense firm where, in addition to his civil and regulatory practice, he represented corporate and individual clients in federal criminal prosecutions arising from the alleged violation of environmental laws (RCRA, and the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts), and in health care fraud and abuse, securities fraud, public corruption and telemarketing fraud cases.
EDUCATION:
- Tulane University Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1995
- Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1990
ADMISSIONS:
- Florida
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
CLERKSHIP : Law Clerk to U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
Membership:
- The Florida Bar
- Hillsborough County Bar Association
- Challenged Athlete’s Foundation, Florida (Board Member)
Cost
Rate : $$$