Perkins Coie Adds Healthcare Practitioners to White Collar & Investigations Practice
Richard (Rick) A. Hosley and Chandra K. Westergaard have joined Perkins Coie’s White Collar & Investigations practice as partner and senior counsel, respectively. Both Denver-based attorneys come from firm client DaVita, a FORTUNE 200 healthcare company.
“Rick and Chandra are true white collar all-stars with substantial white collar pedigrees,” said Markus Funk, Denver-based Firmwide Chair of Perkins Coie’s White Collar & Investigations practice. “Their industry-leading, in-house, government and private practice experience will make them sought-after advisors and counselors and will significantly contribute to our group’s regional and national strength.”
During his tenure at DaVita, Hosley served as Associate General Counsel and Vice President in Charge of Litigation and managed a legal team of more than 20 professionals responsible for legal matters across the global enterprise, including complex commercial litigation, government investigations and enforcement actions, internal compliance investigations, shareholder derivative suits and securities class actions, among others. In 2017, Hosley was named “People’s Choice” for “Best In-House Counsel” by Law Week Colorado.
Prior to his time at DaVita, Hosley served as a United States Marine Corps Officer and Judge Advocate, operating in various positions including Chief Trial Counsel and Senior Defense Counsel at Marine Corps installations in Japan. Hosley also served a combat tour in Iraq as the Battalion Judge Advocate for 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division. During his deployment, Hosley participated in combat operations in the Al Anbar Province, worked with tribal leaders and local officials to reestablish government functions in Western Iraq, and served as a polling site observer during the 2005 Iraq Constitutional Referendum, the firm said in a release.
After his active-duty service in the Marine Corps, Hosley worked in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Districts of Montana and Colorado and served as Chief of the Major Crimes Section for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver. As a federal prosecutor, he tried more than 20 U.S. District Court trials and drafted and argued appeals to U.S. Courts of Appeals. As Chief of Major Crimes for Colorado, he led a team of federal prosecutors and agents and supervised hundreds of federal investigations. He received the DOJ’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance in 2013. Following his DOJ service and prior to joining DaVita, Hosley gained private practice experience as a white collar and litigation partner at Hogan Lovells.
The firm said Hosley’s practice at Perkins Coie has an emphasis on healthcare and focuses on government civil and criminal investigations, False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute enforcement actions and qui tam litigation, privileged internal compliance investigations, including allegations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, shareholder derivative suits and securities class actions, and complex commercial litigation and trials. Hosleyreceived his J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law and his B.A. from Drake University.
As Assistant General Counsel and Head of Investigations for DaVita, Westergaard supervised and managed a team of attorneys and legal professionals and was responsible for some of the company’s most important legal matters, including internal healthcare compliance investigations, DOJ and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services investigations and enforcement actions, and False Claims Act qui tam litigation. Prior to her time with DaVita, Westergaard was a member of Crowell & Moring’s healthcare group, where she represented healthcare providers and managed healthcare organizations on a wide range of fraud and abuse, compliance and regulatory matters, including investigations and enforcement actions.
Westergaard’s practice at Perkins Coie focuses on healthcare regulatory and compliance guidance, government civil and criminal investigations, False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute enforcement actions and qui tam litigation, privileged internal compliance investigations, including allegations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, and civil litigation. She received her J.D. from Duke University School of Law and a double B.A., cum laude, from McDaniel College.
“The addition of Rick and Chandra to the Denver office provides us a national bench strength and reputation in the healthcare regulatory market,” said Sonny Allison, Managing Partner of Perkins Coie’s Denver office. “They are an exceptionally talented team, which will allow us to attract significant work on a regional and national level and put us into solid contention for highly sought-after healthcare investigation matters.”
The two join former federal prosecutor Markus Funk, retired Colorado Chief Justice Mike Bender, counsel Chelsea Curfman, and various associates that make up Denver’s White Collar Defense & Investigations practice, the firm said.
