Attorneys' Division Bios
Mike Altschuler, Comvest Partners
Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel. Michael serves as Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel, and is responsible for Comvest’s administrative operations and legal function. Prior to joining Comvest, Michael spent five years as the general counsel and corporate secretary for a NYSE listed finance company. Earlier in his career, Michael was a Director & Counsel at UBS Investment Bank where he had legal responsibility for high-yield originations and bridge lending and also practiced as a securities and capital markets attorney with Latham & Watkins LLP. Michael received a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.
David Leibowitz, Braman Management Association
General Counsel, Braman Management Association, 8 years six months Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, 8 years 11, months University of Pennsylvania Law School, Doctor of Jurisprudence/Juris Doctor 2000
Richard Siegel, H.I.G. Capital
Rich has been General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of H.I.G. Capital since 2005. He is responsible for all of the firm’s legal, regulatory and compliance matters worldwide. Prior to joining H.I.G., Rich was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Ryder System, a Fortune 350 global transportation and logistics company, and General Counsel of a private investment firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Rich began his legal career in the New York and Melbourne, Australia offices of Sullivan & Cromwell and served as a Judicial Clerk for Andrew G.T. Moore II, of the Delaware Supreme Court. Rich received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and earned a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland.
Moderator: Jerry J. Sokol
Jerry J. Sokol concentrates his national practice on the business aspects of healthcare law at ________with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and various contractual arrangements in the healthcare industry. He is chair of the firm’s national Health Transactions Group and managing partner of the Miami office. Jerry has a robust healthcare private equity practice with a focus on leveraged buyout transactions. Jerry and his team are uniquely qualified to perform the acquisition and finance components of these transactions, as well as the healthcare-specific due diligence and regulatory aspects of deals.
This unique combination of first-rate healthcare regulatory expertise and top-tier private equity corporate practice expertise provides private equity fund clients, as well as clients who are selling to private equity, a distinct advantage in the transaction process, as opposed to the large number of transactions in which these two critical legal components are bifurcated between firms.
Jerry has had a 25-year practice focus on the acquisitions and sales of large medical practices. His focus in this area dates back to the mid-1990s. He has substantial experience rolling up physician practices in a wide range of physician specialties (e.g., dermatology, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, dental, orthopedics, urology, radiology, anesthesia, ER, pain). Jerry and his team are particularly adept at establishing and executing upon effective acquisition strategies for physician practice management companies. These strategies include adopting cutting-edge structures to protect the investment and position the PPM for growth by properly incentivizing physicians and ensuring their commitment to the enterprise, which is paramount for successful PPM companies.
Jerry has also developed a particular niche representing ambulatory surgery center (ASC) companies with all of their transactional and regulatory needs. His ASC transactional practice ranges from syndicating start-up ASCs, effectuating the sales of equity interests in existing ASCs to physicians, and buying and selling significant equity positions in ASCs on behalf of and to large corporate buyers and health systems. Jerry also has substantial merger and acquisition experience with companies in a variety of other healthcare services subsectors, including hospitals, diagnostic imaging, urgent care, physical therapy, pharmacy and cancer treatment centers, among others.
