Professional Experience
Greg Pimstone is a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office and chairs the national Healthcare Litigation practice. He is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors.
Greg is a leading national litigator in the healthcare field. On three separate occasions, The Daily Journal has recognized Greg as one of the “Top 100 Attorneys” in California. He has also been repeatedly recognized in Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers, “The Best Lawyers in America” and “Southern California Super Lawyers” as one of the leading healthcare attorneys in California. Greg co-authors the Rutter Group’s Practice Guide section on Managed Care as well as the BNA treatise on Managed Care Litigation. He has taught Health Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).
Greg has been lead counsel in numerous high-profile cases that have established new precedent in the healthcare field. He represents companies in trial and appellate proceedings on a wide spectrum of legal, legislative and regulatory issues impacting the healthcare sector. Greg has represented managed care health plans, health insurers, trade associations, medical providers and other companies in RICO class actions, consumer class actions, criminal and civil audits and government investigations, ERISA actions, unfair competition class actions, fraud and abuse actions, bad faith denial of benefits lawsuits, policy rescission investigations and actions, qui tam actions, HIPAA and other privacy matters, antitrust disputes, product liability actions and pharmaceutical litigation. In addition to his legal work, Greg sits on the Board of Directors of the Constitutional Rights Foundation.
Greg is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in Biology and Political Science. He remained at Berkeley for law school, graduating from Boalt Hall, where he was awarded several academic prizes and worked with Professor Sanford (“Sandy”) Kadish on his textbook “Criminal Law and Its Processes.”
On the appellate side, Greg’s recent cases include a January 2010 unanimous published decision by the California Court of Appeal making new law in favor of Greg’s client and the industry pertaining to the issue of postclaims underwriting and other enrollment statutes applicable to health insurers. Greg also prevailed before the Court of Appeal in a case that concerned whether health plans can be held liable for delegated decisions made by medical groups concerning benefit determinations rendered to plan insureds, again an issue of first impression in California. Adopting legal arguments that Greg advanced on behalf of his client and the healthcare industry, the Court of Appeal issued a unanimous published opinion holding that health plans are not responsible for the thousands of decisions delegated to medical groups around the state.
On the trial side, Greg prevailed for his client, Blue Shield, in the much-watched case, Hailey v. California Physicians Service dba Blue Shield of California, which was tried to an Orange County jury, and resulted in a verdict in favor of Blue Shield. The Hailey case was the first postclaims underwriting case in California to proceed to jury trial. Greg also obtained dismissals for his client in the United States District Court in Miami in two significant RICO actions that had been brought by nationwide classes of almost 1 million physicians and other allied healthcare providers, alleging a conspiracy to underpay providers.
Honors & Awards
The Best Lawyers in America, 2012.
Named as one of the Leading Lawyers in Healthcare, Chambers USA, 2011.
Publications
Author, "Training Your Outside Counsel," Inside Counsel, September 23, 2010.