Paul Deeringer
“I start every engagement with genuine curiosity about what drives my clients’ businesses and their goals, then focus on guidance that’s pragmatic, efficient, and free of unnecessary noise – so they can move forward at a risk profile that makes sense for them.”
Paul Deeringer brings operating leadership, deep transactional experience, and regulatory depth to clients across the health care industry, including health systems and hospitals, medical groups, and health technology companies. His approach rests on three pillars: a real interest in the pressures and priorities behind each client’s decisions; a bias toward practical solutions over theoretical ones; and a focus on efficiency that respects clients’ time and budget – and that recognizes that his clients are in the business of delivering health care, not buying legal services.
A former Hooper, Lundy & Bookman attorney, Paul returns to the firm after nearly 14 years in senior leadership at John Muir Health, a $2.6 billion California integrated health system, most recently serving as SVP and Chief Strategy Officer. He approaches each transaction and strategic question with the analytical discipline of a lawyer and the judgment of an executive who has had to live with the results.
As a senior executive, Paul was accountable for long-range strategy, market positioning, physician alignment, partnerships and joint ventures, growth initiatives, and strategic financial planning across a complex multi-hospital and ambulatory delivery network. His legal and regulatory background complements his entrepreneurial mindset, enabling him to anticipate and address regulatory developments that can have an outsized impact on health care organizations and their strategies.
Though he now serves as outside counsel, Paul maintains the long-range perspective of an enterprise leader who remains accountable long after the deal closes. His client-side experience gives him a clear sense of what health care organizations need – and don’t need – from their outside advisers: clear answers, prioritized risks, and guidance sized to the issue at hand.
Representative Experience
Physician Alignment and Medical Group Transactions
- Led negotiation of a five-year, $600M+ professional services agreement with a large primary care medical group
- Deal lead for a $100M+ oncology acquisition and formation of foundation-based cancer medical group
- Deal lead and compensation model architect for formation of foundation-based cardiovascular and multispecialty medical groups, including negotiation of professional services agreements
Partnerships, Joint Ventures, and Affiliations
- Executive lead for a $430M+ portfolio of a dozen health system partnerships, joint ventures, and affiliations – spanning acute care, ambulatory care, pediatric subspecialty care, cancer care, ambulatory surgery centers, home health, and inpatient rehab
- Closed a health system’s first direct majority acquisition of a freestanding endoscopy center
- Led restructuring and optimization for multiple legacy joint ventures, including hospital-based cancer center, outpatient ambulatory joint venture, and ambulatory surgery center joint ventures
Capital Transactions
- Led strategic and analytical positioning for a $441M bond issuance and rating agency engagement
- Directed an $80M ambulatory expansion project from strategy through execution
Prior Legal Practice
- As outside counsel: Advised healthcare providers on business transactions, physician alignment, corporate practice of medicine, health information privacy, and fraud and abuse counseling and compliance investigations
- As in-house counsel: Provided full-service in-house legal support on physician transactions (practice acquisitions, post-acquisition integration, and recruitment), Medicare ACO compliance, medical foundation operations, commercial transactions, and non-profit governance
