Boardroom Consultants

Kathy Lauer joined Latham & Watkins’ San Diego office as a Summer Associate in 1987.  Over the course of her 30+ years of practice, Kathy became a go-to authority in the practice of healthcare law. Kathy chose Latham because she believed it would provide her with access to the most interesting, complex work, the most sophisticated clients, and people she liked with whom she could see herself working in the trenches.  She also felt a strong attraction to Latham’s culture, with its emphasis on excellence, transparency and team play.  Kathy began her legal career as a general commercial litigator, but early on she recognized the pull to find a specialty on which she could build a national platform.  Healthcare provided that opportunity, and she found her work passion.  Kathy practiced at Latham for 36 years, building and ultimately leading a thriving healthcare regulatory and fraud defense practice, representing some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated publicly traded healthcare companies.  When she decided to retire from the formal practice of law in April 2023, Kathy left Latham knowing that the client relationships she had nurtured for decades were in the hands of the team she had nurtured and built.

As Kathy entered her third decade of practice, she sought out management roles in the firm. For more than a decade, she served as the Global Co-Chair of the Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice Group, where she focused on strategic growth and business development. Her role also encompassed attorney recruitment and retention and partnership promotion recommendations, and the hiring and integration of lateral partners. Kathy also has served as Vice-Chair of the firm’s Associates Committee, whose responsibilities include the compensation, evaluation, and promotion of the firm’s 2,500+ associates. Other management roles included service on the firm’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the Global Women Enriching Business Steering Committee, and as a Mentoring Coordinator.

Kathy developed key client relationship roles as a business and regulatory advisor to companies such as HCA (Fortune 100), Tenet Healthcare (Fortune 200), and Sutter Health. She interacted with their directors and C-suite executives on structuring significant transactions and strategic initiatives. She focused on maximizing business objectives while mitigating regulatory and enforcement risk. Clients looked to Kathy to solve their most difficult and complex problems, and she remained a trusted legal advisor and an integral member of their legal teams for decades. Other notable clients include Eli Lilly, NuVasive Spine, Zimmer/Biomet, Millennium Health, WalMart, Advocate Health Care, Adventist Health West, Catholic Healthcare West (now Common Spirit), University Hospitals of Cleveland, Parkland Hospital, Mariner Healthcare, DJO Global and Medicis Pharmaceuticals.

Kathy’s practice long emphasized the design and implementation of effective compliance programs in the healthcare and life sciences space. In addition, she represented many clients in enterprise-threatening civil and criminal fraud investigations, as well as in complex corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions. She has extensive experience with the federal Anti-kickback Statute, the Stark Laws, and the federal False Claims Act. Her relationships with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Department of Justice reflect a strong commitment to personal service.

Kathy negotiated some of the healthcare industry’s largest settlements and most complex compliance agreements, as well as key terms in major acquisitions. Her approach to dealmaking reflects her ability to consistently achieve favorable results by objectively predicting the likelihood of success and vigorously advocating for her clients’ interests. Kathy’s clients consistently benefited from her ability to negotiate hard while at the same time developing and maintaining appropriately respectful and positive relationships with regulators and other adversaries, yielding both short-term and long-term benefits.

A recognized voice at national legal conferences bearing on her clients’ interests, Kathy is a past Co-Chair of the Health Law Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation. She also has served on Planning Committees for the American Health Lawyers’ Association Fraud and Compliance Forum and the ABA Annual National Institute on Healthcare Fraud. Kathy’s conference participation, as well as her prolific legal writings, cemented her national reputation as a though leader as reflected in the many accolades and recognitions that she has received over the past two decades – including being named a healthcare law “Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal.