JENNIFER CSIK HUTCHENS PARTNER

BRYAN CAVE LEIGHTON PAISNER CHARLOTTE

As a leader in healthcare law, Jennifer Hutchens is most excited about innovation.

“Health AI is truly transformative,” she said. “And other areas of health innovation, such as concierge medicine, digital health, and telemedicine continue to evolve and grow.”

A graduate of Duke University School of Law, Hutchens is a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and the global leader of the firm’s healthcare practice in Charlotte. She has been fascinated with healthcare her whole life.

“From a very young age, I witnessed the miracles of medicine and the ecosystem that helped take care of my mother, who was hospitalized for much of my childhood with a life-long mental health condition,” she said. “As I developed my academic interests in college, I became interested in finding a pathway to support that same ecosystem and give back to it.”

As a strategic, operations, and compliance-focused lawyer, she has been able to attain trusted status adviser with her clients.

“That level of partnership with my clients, including the journey to build that relationship, is a gift I do not take for granted,” she said. “It also means I routinely feel I learn more from my clients than they will ever know.”

MARCUS C. HEWITT PARTNER

Marc Hewitt is committed to helping healthcare providers solve thorny disputes and legal issues that get in the way of their mission to treat patients and promote healthy communities.

A partner at Fox Rothschild in Raleigh, Hewitt started his career as a general commercial litigator but gravitated toward health law as he gained experience.

“Healthcare disputes present a unique challenge because they involve the intersection of state and federal laws and regulations with the operational challenges faced by healthcare providers,” he said. “To be an effective litigator in this field, you need to understand the industry as well as the law.”

Hewitt chairs the North Carolina Bar Association’s Health Law Section and serves on the SearStone Continuing Care Retirement Community’s board of directors. He is a past president of the North Carolina Association of Health Care Attorneys.

A lifelong North Carolinian, Hewitt says he joined the Marines to see the world and ended up stationed at Camp LeJeune, N.C. “Now I wouldn’t live anywhere else," he said.

BRANDON W. LEEBRICK

As a principal with Ott Cone & Redpath, Brandon Leebrick focuses on hospitals, helping them with legal and operational issues involving reimbursements.

“Healthcare has always intrigued me as an impactful way to serve people, yet I never pictured myself working as a medical professional,” he said. “A health law class piqued my interest in pairing my legal skills and business knowledge with my interest in healthcare.”

In Leebrick’s view, one of the most pressing industry issues in the healthcare sector right now is medical personnel shortages and their impact on the delivery of care, particularly in an aging population.

“Changes to laws and regulations are needed to make it easier for people to access medical care and providers to get reimbursed adequately,” he said.

Working to help his client hospitals solve this and other problems keeps Leebrick passionate about his work.

“I like to help solve challenging problems, and with healthcare’s regulatory landscape always changing, there is never a dull moment,” he said.

John Martin draws his inspiration from the wondrous variety that medicine brings. As managing partner at Cranfill Sumner’s Wilmington office, he co-chairs the firm’s Medical Malpractice Group, defending hospitals, physicians and physician practices and long-term care facilities that find themselves in litigation.

Martin points to rising patient expectations for fueling increasingly growing litigation.

“I think patients are more demanding now than they were years ago and are quick to make complaints to hospitals or with the NC Medical Board,” he said.

Martin, who grew up in Nigeria, received his law degree from Campbell University. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a national association comprised of experienced trial lawyers and judges. He treasures the opportunity to work with the clients he serves in his practice.

“It is an honor and humbling to represent healthcare providers,” he said.

While growing up on a farm in Kentucky, Kayla Marty became passionate about rural access to healthcare.

“Many of my favorite clients are providers outside of metropolitan areas who provide care to those who do not have access to significant healthcare choices,” she said.

Marty, a partner at McGuireWoods in Charlotte, works extensively with fertility practices and says her greatest rewards come from helping women’s health providers expand their businesses. She is constantly amazed by the ways her clients change the lives of women and families.

“Expansion and development of my clients’ practices provides greater access to care for women across the country,” she said. “Fertility services are in high demand by families in the U.S., and access to care continues to increase as a result of the hard work of groups such as those I represent.”

When Marty has down time, she enjoys fishing, preferably on a Montana river.