Built on the foundation of the firm's practice, premier regulatory and transactional health care, Drinker Biddle's health care litigation team consists of experienced trial lawyers who have a detailed understanding of the health-care industry and the challenges faced by our clients. Our trial lawyers have successfully defended health systems, hospitals, academic medical centers, physician groups, providers, and managed care entities in civil and criminal matters and investigations throughout the country.
Our health care litigation practice has covered nearly every conceivable subject. Our litigators are often called on to defend clients in disputes at the forefront of legal issues facing the industry. For example, the firm has been actively involved in the charitable trust, charity-care and managed care suits, and continues to lead the defense of numerous qui tam suits and related investigations. In the current environment, our class action defense practice is an integral part of what we provide our clients.
Drinker Biddle also has considerable experience in medical staff disputes, payor controversies and commercial disputes in the health-care context. We also draw on our substantial Antitrust Practice when needed to address issues -- issues ranging from challenged mergers to questionable provider networks that exclude certain providers to government investigations of possible boycotts and potential misuses of market power by health care providers.
In the civil antitrust arena, the firm was among the first firms to successfully bring a private action to enjoin a hospital merger. We have successfully defended our hospital system clients against claims of an abuse of monopoly power and other alleged antitrust violations. We have also successfully brought suit on behalf of hospital clients who have been harmed or who were threatened with harm by anti-competitive acts by competitors.
Equally important, members of our health care litigation practice regularly counsel clients on risk-avoidance and regulatory matters. We have significant experience and success in strategic partnerships designed to eliminate, reduce or manage regulatory and other litigation confronting health care clients. Using teams of multi-disciplinary specialists, we have worked hand in hand with the executive teams of our clients to manage litigation, oversee compliance programs and internal audit processes, and provide counsel in transactions.