Lawyer For Physicians And Dentists In The New York City
At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have extensive experience representing physicians, dentists, and other health care professionals in Manhattan and New Jersey with respect to their specific employment and professional disciplinary needs and concerns.
We commonly aid physicians, dentists, and other medical professionals in Manhattan and New Jersey in:
- Drafting, revising, and negotiating employment contracts
- Counseling and giving advice during the working relationship
- Drafting, revising, and negotiating severance agreements
- Litigating, arbitrating, and settling disputes
- Defending misconduct investigations of physicians and other medical professionals by the New York State Office of Professional Medical Conduct (the “OPMC”)
- Litigating disciplinary hearings for physicians and other medical professionals before the OPMC
- Defending misconduct investigations of dentists and other licensed professionals by the New York State Department of Education’s Office of Professional Discipline (the “OPD”)
- Litigating disciplinary proceedings against dentists and other licensed professionals before the OPD
Employment Agreements For Physicians And Dentists
Medical doctors and dentists frequently have written employment contracts that shield them from unjustified termination of employment. Further, a well-drafted employment agreement can set forth an all-inclusive, meticulously thought out, and clear enumeration of the physician’s or dentist’s categories of pay and employee benefits.
Employment agreement negotiations for medical doctors and dentists can be protracted and complex. Physicians and dentists who are negotiating an employment agreement with a hospital, a medical practice group, or a dental practice group should retain an experienced New York City Employment Lawyer for Physicians.
The following are some terms that are particularly important to a physician or a dentist in negotiating an employment agreement. At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have substantial experience in bargaining for, drafting, revising, and enforcing these contractual provisions and many others on behalf of medical doctors and dentists.
- Duties and responsibilities, including on-call duties and responsibilities
- Compensation
- Base salary, commissions plan, and bonus provisions
- Provision of facilities, equipment, and personnel
- Partnership and/or equity ownership in the practice
- Restrictive covenants
- Non-competition, non-solicitation agreements, no-poaching, and confidentiality provisions
- Termination of the employment relationship
- Grounds for termination
- By the hospital, medical practice, or dental practice, for cause, good cause, or good reason
- By the physician or dentist, for cause, good cause or good reason
- Professional malpractice insurance coverage
- Professional dues and continuing medical education
- Hospital affiliations and credentialing
- Licensing requirements
- Outside professional activities and practices
- Methodology and procedures
- Conflicts between business management and ethical standards of the medical or dental profession
- Grounds for termination
If you are a physician or a dentist in the New York metropolitan area who seeks a written agreement of employment with a hospital, a medical practice group, or a dental practice group, or who must respond to an employment contract tendered by a potential employer, call the New York Employment Attorney for Physicians David S. Rich at (212) 209-3972.
Issues Arising During The Employment Relationship
Whether or not you, the physician or dentist, have entered into an employment agreement with your employer or a partnership agreement with your medical practice group or dental practice group, conflicts and disputes may develop during the working relationship. A skilled New York City Employment Lawyer for Physicians can help you confront such circumstances by means of evaluating, investigating, advising, negotiating, and, when warranted, litigating or arbitrating. Frequently arising issues include:
- Objecting to, or refusing to take part in, activities, policies or practices of the employer that the physician or dentist reasonably believes constitutes improper quality of patient care or improper quality of workplace safety
- Change of control of the employer
- Compensation disputes
- Failing to furnish adequate facilities, equipment, and staff
- Conflicts between partners, or with associated hospitals or medical facilities
- Infighting and internal strife
Cessation Or Termination Of The Employment Relationship
When the employment relationship or partnership relationship ceases or terminates, medical doctors and dentists have particular wants and interests which they must deftly bargain for with the hospital, medical practice group, or dental practice group, as the case may be.
In such a cessation of the working relationship or partnership relationship, the parties have differing needs and interests. The physician or dentist seeks to receive income and benefits (especially if he or she doesn’t have another job). Further, the physician or dentist seeks to preserve his or her career mobility and good name. By contrast, the hospital, medical practice group, or dental practice group seeks to maintain its business, profits, or patients. Further, the employer seeks to avoid any large-scale financial responsibilities to the exiting physician or dentist. So, too, the employer aims to prevent the departing physician or dentist from suing the employer or practice group.
The following are some of the terms and conditions that are of special significance to a physician or a dentist in negotiating, with his or her employer, medical practice group, or dental practice group, a severance agreement or separation agreement. At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have extensive experience in negotiating, drawing up, revising, and enforcing these contractual terms and numerous others on behalf of medical doctors and dentists.
- Buyout or repurchase, by the medical practice group or dental practice group, of the physician’s or dentist’s partnership interest
- Severance or settlement payments by the employer to the physician or dentist
- Monetary amount of the payments
- Lump sum or, instead, periodic payments
- Characterization of the payments as wages or, instead, as reimbursement for attorney’s fees paid
- Subsidization, by employer, of continuation of the physician or dentist’s health care coverage
- Waiver and release of claims
- One-way or, instead, mutual
- Restrictive covenants
- Non-disclosure
- Non-solicitation provisions
- Non-competition
- No-poaching
- Maintenance, by the employer or partnership, of tail professional liability (malpractice) coverage on behalf of the medical doctor or dentist
- Non-disparagement
- One-way or, instead, mutual
- Disclosures, by the employer in response to any governmental inquiry, about the circumstances of the cessation of the physician’s employment
- In any lawsuit arising under the settlement agreement, may the winner recover its attorney’s fees from the loser?
- Time within which, and means by which, the medical doctor or dentist may revoke the severance agreement
- Assistance in the physician’s obtaining of future employment
- Requests for verification of the physician’s or dentist’s former employment with the hospital, medical practice group, or dental practice group
- Requests for an employment reference with respect to the physician or dentist
If you are a physician or a dentist in the New York metropolitan area who seeks to negotiate a severance agreement with a hospital, a medical practice group, or a dental practice group, or who must respond to a separation agreement proffered by an employer, call the New York City Employment Lawyer for Physicians David S. Rich at (212) 209-3972.
Employment Litigation and Arbitration for Physicians and Dentists
Frequently, conflicts arise between medical doctors and dentists and their employers or partnerships. In the first instance, physicians and dentists should use their best efforts to voluntarily resolve these disputes through communication and bargaining.
In some circumstances, the physician or dentist and his or her hospital, medical practice group, or a dental practice group may resolve their dispute through mediation. Mediation is a process by which the parties meet with a mutually selected impartial and neutral individual who assists them in the negotiation of their differences.
When communication, negotiation, and mediation fall short or are of no use, the disputants may sue one another in court, or may take part in arbitration in an arbitral forum. Many employment contracts between physicians or dentists and their employers, and many partnership agreements to which medical doctors and dentists are signatories, mandate that arbitration is the sole forum for resolving disputes arising from the employment relationship or partnership relationship.
At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have substantial experience aiding medical doctors and dentists in resolving disputes with their employers or partnerships through persuasive advocacy in negotiations and mediations.
Likewise, at the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have considerable experience representing physicians and dentists in employment litigation in federal and state courts and in arbitration proceedings before arbitral bodies, including, for example, breach of employment contract cases, wage-and-hour lawsuits, discriminatory discharge actions, retaliatory discharge cases, and lawsuits for sexual harassment or for other unlawful harassment at work.
If you are a physician or a dentist in the New York metro area and you believe you have been wrongfully terminated, you are owed unpaid wages, unpaid commissions, or unpaid bonus(es), or your employer internally investigating you for unlawful sexual harassment, other unlawful workplace harassment, or other misconduct, call the New York City Employment Attorney for Physicians David S. Rich at (212) 209-3972.
Manhattan OPMC Investigations and Disciplinary Hearings
Manhattan OPD Investigation and Disciplinary Hearings
At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have significant experience representing dentists in misconduct investigations and disciplinary proceedings brought by the New York State Department of Education’s Office of Professional Discipline (the “Manhattan OPD” or the “OPD”).
As a dentist in Manhattan, you have a duty not to engage in professional misconduct.
If you violate this duty, the Manhattan OPD may bring a misconduct investigation and/or a disciplinary proceeding against you. For a more detailed discussion of misconduct investigations and disciplinary proceedings brought by the Manhattan OPD against licensed health care professionals and against licensed health care professionals outside the health care industry, see our Manhattan OPD Investigations and Disciplinary Hearings page.
The Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC represents dentists in all steps of the professional disciplinary process: (1) drawing up the mandated, signed statements responding to the allegations; (2) so as to craft legal defenses and to find mitigating circumstances, researching published decisions of Manhattan’s Appellate Division, Third Department, reviewing orders of the New York State Board of Regents (the “State Board of Regents”) meting out professional discipline; (3) readying the dentists for on-the-record interviews and participating in those interviews as the dentists’ counsel; (4) negotiating settlements; (5) advocating, on the dentists’ behalf, at informal settlement conferences before a member of the State Board of Dentistry; (6) answering statements of charges; (7) drafting and arguing pre-hearing motions; and (8) litigating disciplinary hearings.
So, too, the Manhattan OPD may, in an on-the-record interview, make the dentist testify under oath.
If the dentist is otherwise unable to settle, with the Manhattan OPD, the Manhattan OPD’s misconduct investigation against the dentist, then the dentist may elect to take part, with the assigned Manhattan OPD attorney, in an informal settlement conference before a member of the State Board of Dentistry.
Most formal disciplinary actions are resolved before litigation through the issuance of a consent order. A consent order is a document which sets forth the OPD’s findings of fact and the sanctions imposed.
The disciplinary hearing is not as a formal as a trial in court, but it takes place by means of similar procedures.
The Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC adeptly defends dentists in misconduct investigations brought by the NY OPD. So, too, on behalf of dentists, the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC skillfully negotiates, with the NY OPD, settlements of misconduct investigations and of formal disciplinary proceedings. When a settlement cannot be reached, the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC aggressively defends the dentists in disciplinary hearings before hearing panels.
