James Hennessy

Practice Areas

James is a health care regulatory attorney in Reed Smith’s Life Sciences Health Industry Group, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He represents traditional health care providers and life sciences companies alongside the emerging generation of digital health and AI-driven companies reshaping the industry, helping clients navigate the regulatory and transactional complexities of a rapidly evolving health care landscape.

James counsels companies across the full spectrum of the industry, from physician practices, hospitals, health systems, and academic medical centers to pharmacies, clinical laboratories, medical foundations, DMEPOS suppliers, independent diagnostic testing facilities (IDTFs), federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), digital health providers and companies, telehealth providers, drug and device wholesalers, and behavioral health providers. He also represents life sciences companies and health industry-focused private equity firms, with particular experience in physician practice matters across radiology, gastroenterology, pathology, and other specialties.

James' practice spans regulatory counseling, transactional work, and compliance, including the negotiation and drafting of provider agreements, acquisitions and divestitures, transactional due diligence, change of ownership matters, and the identification and resolution of regulatory concerns. He advises clients on federal and state fraud and abuse laws (Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute), Medicare and Medicaid participation and reimbursement, state corporate practice of medicine issues, and provider licensure and enrollment. James has particular depth in Stark Law matters, developed through years of complex physician practice representation across a wide range of specialties. He is also deeply versed in the Management Services Organization (MSO) model, having structured and implemented MSO arrangements for clients across the country, and brings market-informed guidance on structures and approaches drawn from broad experience with what leading organizations are doing in practice.