Polsinelli Healthcare Law Forum

[Anonymous User]

Looking for opinions on working with Polsinelli and their healthcare practice?

[Anonymous User]

2L here, interviewed with them earlier this fall. my understanding is previous healthcare work experience or credentials are prereq's for that practice

[Anonymous User]

If you are a student, you need to have either significant prior healthcare work experience or have attended certain school programs (SLU Health law is one) that the firm has basically vetted as sufficient experience. They won't put you into the "healthcare" group otherwise. You can and will still work on many healthcare related deals/litigation matters if you do join, just not on the regulatory side.

If you are already a graduate, need to have some prior healthcare work. I've never seen someone lateral into the healthcare group with no prior healthcare experience.

If you are just looking for general opinions, it's a very good group and always looking to grow. I think most are in Chicago/St louis/KC. Happy to try and help otherwise.

Source: work there, not in healthcare group though.

[Anonymous User]

general question and not specific to polsinelli. how do get relevant healthcare experience? i seen entry level positions that require some experience, but then you need the entry level position to get experience. how exactly do you break in?

[Anonymous User]

I'm not at Polsinelli but I am a midlevel associate at a peer healthcare firm.

general question and not specific to polsinelli. how do get relevant healthcare experience? i seen entry level positions that require some experience, but then you need the entry level position to get experience. how exactly do you break in?

Generally, if you don't have pre-law healthcare work experience we look at what you did in law school. What courses did you take? What internships and summer positions? Have you written on healthcare matters? Do you know the difference between HIPPA and HIPAA? Do you have another degree (e.g. MHA or MPH)?

You can also gain experience by working as a consultant, or for state and local health departments, nonprofits, hospitals, ancillary providers, etc. Spend some time looking at bios of associates at reputable health care firms (Chambers bands work as a decent proxy) and you'll start to see paths.

[Anonymous User]

general question and not specific to polsinelli. how do get relevant healthcare experience? i seen entry level positions that require some experience, but then you need the entry level position to get experience. how exactly do you break in?

I’m now in a healthcare group even though I had no thought of the field when I left law school. Randomly, I was staffed on a bunch of FCA cases, antitrust cases, class actions, and other cases that dealt with healthcare, and I was able to sell that as healthcare experience when I lateralled. Obviously some luck was involved there. But I don’t think it’s that rare to have healthcare cases. Healthcare is such a huge part of the economy that it’s almost inevitable that a biglaw general practice group will have something touching on healthcare. Be the guy that raises his hand when that work comes in.