Chicago partner Doug Swill spoke to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin about the decision to name Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s national health-law transactional competition after former Drinker partner Ed Bryant.

Ed Bryant participated in about 130 hospital and health systems mergers and acquisitions involving some of the largest health care providers in the U.S., as well as approximately 240 corporate restructurings. He also taught health law at Loyola from 1985 to 1992.

Doug, chair of the Health Care Practice Group, wanted to do something to honor Ed and so contacted Lawrence Singer, director of the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy at Loyola Law School.

It was decided that a perfect way to honor Ed would be to name the school’s National Health Law Transactional Competition after him. The annual competition began in 2011 and is the only health-law transactional competition in U.S. law schools.

Doug said that the firm itself contributed $10,000 to Loyola on behalf of naming the contest after Bryant, and partners in the health care group contributed more.

About 50 lawyers total made donations to support the contest named after Bryant. Singer said many were chief executives or chief financial officers of health-care organizations, also consultants, former students and other lawyers.

"I'm obviously very humbled and honored by this," Ed said. "It could go to a lot of people. … One person can't do all those transactions. I just had the good luck to be the oldest, and therefore, the lead guy. They take a team."

Click the PDF link above to view the entire article.