Overview
Robert Kantrowitz is a corporate healthcare partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing on healthcare regulatory, privacy/security, enforcement, transactional and restructuring matters. He regularly represents healthcare and veterinary clients in structuring and negotiating M&A, data and technology sharing/licensing, management services and other contractual arrangements, corporate organization and restructuring, compliance matters and investigations, data breach/incident response and risk management legal issues. Rob assists clients with a broad range of healthcare and veterinary regulatory matters, including laws related to fraud and abuse, licensure, the corporate practice of medicine, telemedicine, EHR and use of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
Rob holds a Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US) credential given by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Robert regularly counsels clients on privacy, data security, breach notification and interoperability laws and regulations, including HIPAA, Part 2, the ONC 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule, the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule, and state privacy, security and breach notification laws.
Rob is routinely called upon as special regulatory and healthcare privacy counsel in connection with major acquisitions of healthcare and veterinary service platforms undertaken by private equity and strategic acquirers. These transactions involve health information technology developers and service providers, EHR, data analytics, and revenue cycle management platforms and other digital health organizations, device and pharmaceutical/biotechnology manufacturers, laboratories, clinical research organizations and physician, dental, intermediate care, veterinary, medspa and other clinical platforms.
Additionally, Rob actively participates in pro bono activities serving as legal counsel to and an ex officio board member for not-for-profit organizations.
Rob serves as the Chair of the Healthcare & Life Sciences Center of Excellence of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, a global membership organization for companies involved in outsourcing.
Experience
Representative Matters
Healthcare Providers
- Oak Street Health (NYSE: OSH), a primary care company, in its $10.6 billion sale to CVS Health (NYSE: CVS)
- Percheron Capital in its acquisition of Animal Dermatology Group
- KKR (NYSE: KKR) in its investment in SkinSpirit, a provider of aesthetic skin and body care
- Percheron Capital in its acquisition of Garden State Veterinary Specialists, a specialty and emergency veterinary services business
- Varsity Healthcare Partners-backed DuvaSawko|abeo in its acquisition of Gottlieb, a multi-vertical provider to emergency medicine, hospitalist, observation and urgent care practices
- Nordic Capital in its acquisition of United Veterinary Care, a collection of veterinary practices, from Atlantic Street Capital
- Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in its acquisition of Vera Whole Health, a provider of corporate healthcare services
- Starr Investment Holdings-backed ConvenientMD, an urgent care provider, in its sale of a controlling stake to Bain Capital Double Impact
- Waud Capital Partners backed-Heart + Paw, a provider of a pet care services platform, in its investment from Whistler Capital
Healthcare Technology
- Varsity Healthcare Partners in the acquisition of ADVOCATE RCM, a provider of revenue cycle management services, from Talisman Capital Partners
- Knox Lane in its acquisition of All Star Healthcare Solutions, a healthcare staffing firm focused on the locum tenens market
- Vista Equity Partners in its $1.25 billion acquisition of Model N (NYSE: MODN), a provider of revenue optimization and compliance
- Francisco Partners in the investment in RedSail Technologies, a provider of pharmacy technology and solutions, from Leonard Green & Partners
- Olympus Partners in the sale of Soliant, a provider of workforce solutions in K-12 school districts and healthcare facilities, to The Vistria Group
- Mosaik Partners-backed Nonstop, a provider of healthcare cost containment solutions, in its sale to LLR Partners
- Thoma Bravo-backed Zipari, a provider of healthcare consumer experience technology, in its sale to mPulse
- Vista Equity Partners in its $4 billion acquisition of EngageSmart (NYSE: ESMT), a provider of customer engagement software and integrated payments solutions
- Francisco Partners in its $1.7 billion acquisition of Sumo Logic (NASDAQ: SUMO), a SaaS analytics platform to enable reliable and secure cloud-native applications
- Brookfield-backed Everise, a healthcare services outsourcing company, in its investment from Warburg Pincus, valuing the company at $1 billion
- Thomas H. Lee Partners-backed Nextech, a provider of clinical and administrative healthcare technology solutions, in its $1.4 billion sale to TPG
- Thoma Bravo in its $10.4 billion acquisition of Anaplan (NYSE: PLAN), a provider of a cloud-native platform for orchestrating business performance
- Clayton, Dubilier & Rice-backed Vera Whole Health in its $370 million combination with Castlight Health (NYSE: CSLT), a healthcare data and navigation company
- Parthenon Capital-backed MRO Corporation in its acquisition of MediCopy Services, a provider of release of information solutions to physician practices and outpatient providers
- Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in its acquisition of Owl Practice, an integrated software and payments platform focused on the behavioral health market, from Greater Sum Ventures
- Francisco Partners in its acquisition of bswift, a provider of benefits technology and services, from Aetna and CVS Health (NYSE: CVS)
- Warburg Pincus-backed Intelligent Medical Objects, a healthcare data enablement company and provider of clinical terminology solutions, in its sale to Thomas H. Lee Partners
- TCV-backed Kipu in its acquisition of Avea Solutions, a provider of revenue cycle management software that helps treatment centers streamline billing, from Peterson Partners
- Nordic Capital-led equity consortium in its ~$7.3 billion acquisition of Inovalon (NASDAQ: INOV), a provider of cloud-based platforms empowering data-driven healthcare
- Francisco Partners in its acquisition of Office Ally, a provider of healthcare clearinghouse and software solutions
- Bain Capital Private Equity in its acquisition of PartsSource, an online marketplace for medical equipment maintenance parts and services, from Great Hill Partners
- Abry Partners-backed Centauri Health Solutions in its acquisition of Secure Exchange Solutions, a platform provider of cloud-based clinical data exchange software
- Bain Capital-backed HST Pathways in its acquisition of Simple Admit, a provider of automated patient relationship management solutions for surgery centers
- KKR (NYSE: KKR) in its acquisition of Therapy Brands, a practice management and electronic health record (EHR) software platform for mental, behavioral, substance use recovery, applied behavior analysis (ABA) and physical rehabilitation healthcare providers
Life Sciences
- Waud Capital Partners in its acquisition of Science Exchange, a provider of life sciences procurement and supplier management SaaS solutions
- Owens & Minor (NYSE: OMI) in its $1.6 billion acquisition of Apria (NASDAQ: APR), a provider of integrated home healthcare equipment and related services
- EW Healthcare Partners-backed Cognate BioServices, a cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization, in its $875 million sale to Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE: CRL)
Prior Experience
More
Thought Leadership
Speaking Engagements
Speaker, “AI Governance Strategies for the Evolving US Regulatory Landscape,” International Association of Outsourcing Professionals On Location: NYC, November 8, 2024
Panelist, “Deal us into the Data; Privacy Considerations Impacting Deal Risk & Volume,” Privacy Forum Co-Hosted by Kirkland & Ellis & FTI Consulting, September 2024
Speaker, “AI Governance in Health Care,” International Association of Outsourcing Professional's OWS24, May 21, 2024
Speaker, “AHLA's Speaking of Health Law Podcast: The Patchwork That Is U.S. Health Care Data Privacy,” American Health Law Association, May 14, 2024
Speaker, “AHLA's Speaking of Health Law Podcast: Tracking Technologies: Legal and Operational Perspectives,” American Health Law Association, November 10, 2023
Speaker, “Exploring the Impact of the Pandemic on Information Security and Privacy in the United States,” Global GRC, Data Privacy & Cyber Security Conference, June 28, 2023
Speaker, “AHLA’s Speaking of Health Law Podcast: Connecting the Dots Between Health Apps, HIPAA, and the FTC,” American Health Law Association, July 18, 2022
Presenter, “Connecting the Dots Between Health Apps, HIPAA, and the FTC,” Clearwater
Speaker, “Connecting the Dots Between Health Apps, HIPAA, and the FTC,” American Health Law Association’s Health Care Data: Navigating Legal and Operational Challenges Virtual Conference, April 13, 2022
Panelist, “Healthcare Law,” Cardozo Healthcare Law Society, April 15, 2021
Publications
Co-Author, “Practical Prescriptions for Incident Response and Preparedness in Health Care,” New York Law Journal, May 2024
Co-Author, “FTC Announces Revised Health Breach Notification Rule,” Kirkland Alert, April 2024
Co-Author, “An Unacceptable Risk: Groundbreaking Executive Order Restricts Outbound Transfers of U.S. Personal Data and Government-Related Data to Countries of Concern,” Kirkland Alert, March 2024
Co-Author, “President Biden Signs Executive Order Introducing New Regulatory Framework for AI-Enabled Technology in Healthcare,” Kirkland Alert, December 2023
Co-Author, “It's Time To Prescribe Frameworks For AI-Driven Health Care,” Law360, October 2023
Co-Author, “Washington’s My Health My Data Act,” Kirkland Alert, May 2023
Co-Author, “Digital Health Cos. Should Expect More Scrutiny Amid Growth,” Law360, August 16, 2022
Co-Author, “Health IT Transaction Trends and Considerations,” American Health Law Association, April 15, 2021
Co-Author, “New York - Data Protection Overview,” One Trust Data Guidance, March 2020
Co-Author, “FDA’s Latest Efforts to Strengthen Medical Device Cybersecurity,” Bloomberg Law, November 28, 2018
Recognition
500 X – The Next Generation, Lawdragon, 2024
New York Metro Rising Stars, Super Lawyers, 2023–2024
Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US)
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2018New York
Education
- Fordham University School of LawJ.D.2017
- University of Wisconsin-MadisonB.A., Environmental Studies & Political Science2012
with Distinction in the College of Letters & Science