Gerald M.Griffith (Gerry)

Gerry Griffith represents clients in health care transactions and tax controversies, focusing on cutting-edge affiliation structures and high-stakes IRS audits for more than 30 years.

Gerry's transactional practice focuses on complex transactions, with an emphasis on joint ventures (domestic and international), joint operating agreements (JOAs), and acquisitions. He has defended leading hospitals, health systems, and managed care plans and other organizations in more than two dozen IRS audits and voluntary disclosures, including walk-in closing agreements and bond compliance checks. He also has obtained several distinctive, favorable private letter rulings from the IRS, including the first ruling approving a nonprofit hospital joint operating agreement (PLR 9609012), the first hybrid JOA/merger ruling (PLR 199944046), and the first and only ruling on excess benefit transactions with physicians (PLR 201336020). In addition, he has considerable experience in nonprofit governance, physician and executive compensation, structuring academic medical center relationships with faculty practice plans, and restructuring hospital-physician transactions for compliance with the Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute, and excess benefit transaction rules. He represents some of the premier health care systems in the country, including Henry Ford Health System, Trinity Health, and AMITA Health.

Gerry is a past president of the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA). He also previously served as chair of the Health Care Law Section (HCLS) of the State Bar of Michigan, president of the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys, and chair of the Great Lakes Area Tax-Exempt/Government Entities Practitioners Council. He is a Fellow of both AHLA and HCLS.