Major players in the health care and life sciences industries turn to William A. Knowlton for trusted counsel on their most important corporate, regulatory and governance matters. With more than three decades of experience in health care law, Bill offers clients a singular perspective on these complex issues, particularly with regard to acquisitions, joint ventures and restructurings.
Clients have told Chambers USA that Bill is “tremendous on healthcare work, and provides leadership qualities that permeate the strength of the practice as a whole.”
In his practice, Bill regularly advises academic medical centers and faculty practice plans, hospital systems, pharmaceutical companies, managed care organizations and health care investment firms. He also works closely with private equity clients on their acquisitions of health care companies.
Clients have described Bill in Chambers USA as “a diplomatic, highly skilled negotiator.” He has worked with several major academic medical centers on restructuring their relationships with their affiliated medical schools and universities, and has also advised private equity clients on the regulatory framework of health care companies they are seeking to acquire.
One of the earliest members of Ropes & Gray’s health care group and its chair for many years, Bill has played a pivotal role in building the firm’s practice in this area. Bill has served in a number of other important leadership positions at the firm including as a member of the firm’s Policy Committee from 2002 to 2015, where he was liaison to both the firm’s health care and life sciences practices.
He currently serves as co-chair of the firm’s Hiring and Development Committee which oversees associate hiring and development. He also manages a number of important client relationships, including those involving innovative alternative fee arrangements.
Bill belongs to the American Health Lawyers Association and served as a director and clerk of The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare, a national, and increasingly international, charitable organization that supports the physician-patient relationship.
EDUCATION :
- JD, University of Virginia School of Law
- BA (History), cum laude, Yale University
ADMISSIONS :
- District of Columbia
- Massachusetts
MEMBERSHIP & AFFILIATIONS : American Health Lawyers Association
PROFESSIONAL & CIVIC ACTIVITIES :
- Trustee, Kieve-Wavus Education, Inc.
- Director, Mount Desert Island Community Sailing and Maritime Education, Inc.
- Director and Clerk, The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center (2001-2016)
- Director and Capital Campaign Chair, Community Music Center of Boston, Inc. (2006-2015)
- Trustee and Clerk, Sea Education Association, Inc. (1990-2000)
Experience:
- Handles all strategic matters, including affiliations, joint ventures, physician relationships, and regulatory and governance issues, for longtime clients, which include major regional health systems such as Baystate Health, Central Maine Healthcare, and Stamford Health.
- Advises Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. in the development of its innovative coordinated regional care model in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
- Advises health care institutions on innovative transactions. For example, represented the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn) in its collaboration agreement with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to provide CHOP with access to Penn’s proton beam therapy facility.
- Counsels clients on the formation of hospital/physician joint ventures, including ACOs, MSOs, PHOs, IPAs, ambulatory care centers and specialty service joint ventures.
Cost
Rate : $$$