Eric Klein is a partner and team leader of Sheppard Mullin's national health care practice. He focuses his practice on the health care, technology, and related industries. Known in the business community for his creative solutions and deal-making ability, he uses industry knowledge, entrepreneurial solutions, sophisticated negotiation skills, and effective legal process to meet the complex business and legal needs of established and emerging companies.
He’s advised on more than 60% of all major managed care physician group transactions in the Western United States in the past five years. He represents physician groups, hospitals, health plans, ancillary service providers, and private equity and strategic investors. He works with publicly traded and privately held companies and advises for-profit and not-for-profit clients on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), strategic alliances and joint ventures, operational and contracting matters, strategic planning, health maintenance organization (HMO) licensing and compliance, regulatory matters, and IT transactions.
He’s led 60 hospital purchase or sale and joint venture projects in the last 13 years and has worked on hospital networks, conversion of not-for-profit hospitals into for-profit hospitals, credit facilities for hospitals, establishment and acquisition of outpatient treatment centers, outsourcing of hospital departments, and hospital syndications. He’s also assisted with payor contracting and disputes, governmental investigations and licensing, hospital-physician contracts and joint ventures, and revenue cycle management projects. In addition, he has deep experience in health care information systems and technology.
He’s helped to create, acquire, joint venture, and operate multiple health plans across the country. He’s led more than 30 health plan M&A projects in recent years. He’s also been working on innovative payor and provider initiatives to create downstream global risk-bearing entities. In the area of Knox-Keene HMO regulation, he’s working on multiple Knox-Keene applications. His firm represents half of all currently licensed restricted Knox-Keene HMO license holders in California, and obtained a majority of all restricted Knox-Keene health plan licenses granted in California in the past three years. He’s assisted Knox-Keene plans with licensure issues, compliance and corrective action plans, restructuring, acquisitions and disposition of plans, holding company structures, and credit facilities.
He’s been recognized as a leading healthcare lawyer in Best Lawyers in America, National Law Journal as a 2018 M&A Trailblazer, Chambers USA Guide to Leading Lawyers, 2019 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America Guide, Legal 500, Law360—twice named as Health Care Law National MVP, and Los Angeles Business Journal as Most Influential M&A Advisor.