Barnes & Thornburg LLP announced today that Lindsey D. G. Dates and Daniel J. Lawler have joined the firm’s Chicago office as partners in the Litigation and Healthcare Departments, respectively. Previously, Dates worked in the Chicago office of Jones Day and Lawler worked in the Chicago office of K&L Gates LLP.
“Adding these highly regarded partners reflects and advances our strategy to deepen our resources across a number of practice areas in Chicago,” said Mark Rust, managing partner of Barnes & Thornburg’s Chicago office. “We are pleased to have Lindsey and Dan join our growing Chicago office.”
Dates is a trial lawyer who represents global clients in high-stakes litigation matters and focuses on commercial contract and business tort litigation. His broad array of complex litigation experience includes antitrust, intellectual property, product liability, white collar criminal, commercial real estate, labor, bankruptcy, and health care litigation matters.
Lawler has extensive experience representing healthcare providers in regulatory proceedings before the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (f/k/a Department of Public Aid), and the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board (IHFSRB). Most notably, Lawler represented Centegra Health System in front of the IHFSRB on its Certificate of Need (CON) application. The new Centegra Hospital-Huntley will be one of only two new, non-replacement acute care hospitals in the Chicago area in the last 30 years.
In addition, Lawler has litigated many cases on behalf of a variety of providers in their disputes with managed care payors, including the successful mediation of claims arising out of the insolvency of independent practice associations (IPAs). He also obtained for a number of providers the largest monetary judgment to date against the Illinois HMO Guaranty Association following the insolvency of an HMO.
“We look forward to Lindsey bringing a skill-set and forceful intellect to Barnes & Thornburg. He will bolster the Litigation Department’s depth and ability to litigate a wide range of complex litigation matters,” said Bill McErlean, chair of Barnes & Thornburg’s Litigation Department. “Lindsey is a talented lawyer. We are glad to have him on our team and are confident that he will develop into one of the superb trial lawyers of his generation.”
“Dan will be a true asset to the Healthcare Department as he strengthens the firm’s ability to handle healthcare litigation of different kinds,” added Rust, who also chairs the firm’s national Healthcare Department. “His experience working with Certificate of Need issues will also be of great value to our clients.”
Dates and Lawler are the latest lateral attorneys to join Barnes & Thornburg as the firm continues the strategic expansion across the country of its leading practice groups. Their arrivals come on the heels of corporate attorney Bonita Hatchett joining the Chicago office in August and environmental attorney Michael Elam joining the Chicago office in July.
About the Firm’s new Chicago Attorneys
Lindsey D. G. Dates has been a lead lawyer on multiple high-stakes complex civil litigation matters across the country. He has used his sophisticated advocacy skills and unique technical writing background to help his clients prevail in a number of cases.
Lindsey enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at the age of 16, where he earned two Bachelor Degrees and multiple honors as a triple major student (Rhetoric (Technical Writing), Speech Communications, and Political Science). He received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Illinois College of Law, where he was a Lincoln Scholar.
Lindsey is the Director of Community Outreach for the Mentor Teacher Brother Program and the Chair of the Don Hubert Scholars Program. He also has served as a Co-Chair of the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic’s Young Professionals Board, a member of the Associate Board for the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms, and a member of the University of Illinois College of Law Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Daniel J. Lawler concentrates his practice in healthcare regulation and strategic litigation on behalf of providers. He also has a strong background with administrative review and general commercial litigation. He secured for hospital clients the largest monetary judgment against the Illinois HMO Guarantee Association Fund following the insolvency of the MedCare HMO.
He is former chair of the Federal Civil Procedure Subcommittee of the Chicago Bar Association, and a member of the Illinois State Bar Association.
He received a J.D. from Southern Illinois University School of Law, where he served as editor of the SIU Law Journal, and a B.S. from Purdue University.
