Jerry J. Sokol

Jerry Sokol is a Partner in the International Law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery, the firm he has practiced with for over 20 years. Mr. Sokol is a corporate lawyer who has specialized in healthcare transactions his entire career (since 1991). Mr. Sokol is a Board Certified Expert in Healthcare law, and he serves as the Partner-in-Charge of McDermott’s Florida healthcare practice. Although he is resident in the firm’s Miami office, Mr. Sokol’ s practice is entirely national in scope. He is also the Managing Partner of the firm’s Miami office.

As a healthcare transactional attorney, Mr. Sokol focuses his practice on the healthcare services sector. His experience includes representation of numerous clients in M&A transactions involving a wide range of healthcare services subsectors, including by way of example (i) Physician Services Companies (Dermatology, Anesthesia, Pain, Ophthalmology, Radiology, Gastroenterology, orthopedics, and dental), (ii) Ambulatory Surgery Center Companies, (iii) Hospital and Health Systems, (iv) Home Health Companies, (iv) Urgent Care Center Companies, and (v) Dialysis Companies.

Mr. Sokol has had a particular practice focus on sales and acquisitions of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (“ASCs”), Physician Practices, and Physician Practice Management Companies (“PPMS”) . Over the last 25 years, Mr. Sokol has been at the forefront of ASC and PPM transactions. For 15 consecutive years, he has been the Program Chair of McDermott’s annual ASC and Physician Practice Management Symposium, which is generally regarded as the premiere national conference addressing critical legal and business issues affecting the ASC and PPM industries. He was the Founder of this highly-regarded program. Over the years, Mr. Sokol has written numerous articles, and he has also lectured extensively at national conferences, on ASC and PPM issues. Mr. Sokol and his team have represented numerous sellers and acquirors of ASCs and physician practices. His representation in the ASC industry includes representing large ASC Management Companies, health systems, and independent free-standing ASCs with all of their transactional and regulatory needs.

Mr. Sokol has substantial experience representing private equity funds with their acquisitions of healthcare companies. With a rare combination of private equity corporate/finance expertise and healthcare regulatory expertise, Mr. Sokol and his team are uniquely qualified to represent private equity funds with both the acquisition/finance components of these transactions, as well as the critical healthcare regulatory aspects, including healthcare specific due diligence. His expertise representing private equity funds with their transactions has positioned Mr. Sokol well to represent companies selling to private equity funds.

In addition to representing private equity funds, Mr. Sokol leads a team that represents healthcare companies (private equity backed, public, and privately-owned) with all of their transactional and healthcare regulatory needs. In particular, he has worked with numerous such companies to develop and implement an acquisition growth strategy. He works with a number of “serial” acquirer healthcare companies. The breadth and depth of his team enable Mr. Sokol to handle a large volume of M&A transactions.

Mr. Sokol has also represented many of the premier health systems in the country to develop and implement their physician alignment strategies, including ASC and other hospital/physician joint ventures, physician employment arrangements, and other cutting-edge physician alignment models.

Mr. Sokol has received numerous professional accolades, including for several consecutive years being ranked in Chambers USA , Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers. Mr. Sokol has also been listed in Nightingale’s Healthcare News’ Outstanding Healthcare Transaction Lawyer list. In addition to being a licensed lawyer, Mr. Sokol was a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA). This CPA background enables Mr. Sokol to better understand the financial aspects of transactions, in addition to the legal aspects.

In addition to his active legal practice, Mr. Sokol is actively involved a number of charitable organizations and has always had a strong connection to his community. Most recently, he spearheaded the effort as Capital Campaign Chair and President to build a brand new state-of-the-art Jewish Community Center on Miami Beach. This new JCC has improved the lives of thousands of citizens in his community. In addition to currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Miami Beach JCC, Mr. Sokol is also on the Boards of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, and the Friendship Circle. He works closely with his four children on their charitable efforts, including working with his Son Jake and daughter Sophie to establish an annual flag football tournament on Super Bowl Sunday (currently in its seventh consecutive year) which raises significant dollars and awareness for abandoned and abused children in their community, and he works with his daughter Sophie on the Friendship Circle, an organization that arranges for local high school children to spend meaningful time every weekend with special needs children.