Michael L. Blau is a partner and health transactional lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. Michael’s practice focuses on advising clients on health care corporate and regulatory matters, including mergers, acquisitions and affiliations; financing transactions; contracting; and forming provider groups, networks, alliances, and joint ventures. He is the immediate past chair of the firm’s Industry Teams Department. He is a member of the firm’s Health Care and the Technology Industry Teams. He is also the immediate past chair of the firm’s Research and Development Group and the Planning Committee for the Health Care Industry Team.
Prior to joining Foley, Michael was partner-in-charge of the Health Law Department in the Boston office of McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
Awards and Recognition
This year, Michael was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© as one of the 30 Best of the Best health attorneys in the country. He was also named a Leading Lawyer by The Ambulatory M&A Advisor on the 2014 and 2015 lists of Top Healthcare Transaction Lawyers. For three years in a row, he was also recognized as one of the top 10 health attorneys in the country in his specialty by Nightingale’s Healthcare News. He has been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell’s peer review rating system. Michael enjoys both a national and Massachusetts ranking in healthcare by Chambers USA. He was recently recognized by The Legal 500 for his work in the area of health care – service providers (2013 – 2016), and has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© since 2006 in the field of health care. He is perennially named by Boston Magazine to the list of Massachusetts and New England Super Lawyers®, and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Massachusetts Super Lawyers. In 2008, he also received an RX for Excellence Award by Massachusetts Medical Law Reports for Leadership in Quality, and was recognized in the Corporate LiveWire – Global Awards 2015 in the category of health care law.
Affiliations
Michael is co-founder of the Cancer Center Business Summit, a research organization and think tank dedicated to advancing best business models and practices in community oncology care. He annually convenes and co-hosts the Summit proceedings.
Michael is a member of the American Health Lawyer’s Association, and the health law committees of the American Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association and Boston Bar Association.
Michael is the past chair (1998-2000) and member of the Steering Committee (1998-2013)) of the Health Law Section of the Boston Bar Association (BBA). He is editor-in-chief of the BBA’s Parent’s How-to-Guide to Children’s Mental Health Services In Massachusetts. He is a member of the Curriculum Advisory Committee of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., and annually chairs health law programs for MCLE and the BBA. He is also a frequent speaker at seminars sponsored by health care trade associations.
Michael has been a partner in Angel Healthcare Investors, LLC, a seed-level health care venture capital company.
Community Involvement
Michael is a member of the board and has served as chairman of Health Leads (formerly Project HEALTH), a national charity that works to break the link between poverty and poor health for low income children and families. He also is a member of the Leadership Council of The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Care.
Presentations and Publications
Frequently, Michael is a lecturer and author on health law topics. His articles appear in many health care trade publications. He has co-authored a book entitled, Complying with Stark Physician Self-Referral Rules (Atlantic Information Services) and authored or co-authored white papers entitled, “Transforming Health Care Through Accountable Care Organizations: A Critical Assessment”; “Encouraging a Responsible Approach to Consumer-Driven Health Care”; “Cloud Computing For Health Care Organizations: A Practical Framework for Managing Risks” and “Strategic Options for Orthopedists to Remain Independent in Our Rapidly Evolving Health Care System” (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons). He was also the co-author of a book entitled, Developing and Managing Physician Networks (Thompson Publishing).
Michael formerly served as executive editor of the ABA publication The Tax Lawyer, chaired the editorial advisory board of The PPM Profitability Update (Fulcrum Information Services), served as a contributing legal editor for Physician’s News Digest and E-Healthcare Connections, and has been a member of the editorial board of the Boston Bar Journal, The Managed Care Payment Advisor (Aspen Publishing), Surgical Malpractice Prevention Reporter (American Health Consultants) and Journal of Healthcare Safety, Compliance & Infection Control (Prime National Publishing Corporation).