By Doug Sherwin

When Tom Turner thought about launching a national health care practice at San Diego law firm Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, the managing partner knew the ideal attorneys to start it.

He never imagined, however, actually landing them.

Turner's dream became a reality last week when Jody Root and Greg Moser were among nine members of Foley & Lardner LLP's industry-leading health care practice to join Procopio.

"For a long time, we have thought a health care practice would be a great addition for us," Turner said. "But at the same time, the clear leader in that area was this group that Root and Moser had at Foley & Lardner, and frankly, I thought they were unavailable to us. I was thrilled when they contacted us and felt we'd be a great platform to further their practice."

Root is listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers as one of the leading health care attorneys in California and was selected for inclusion in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

He brings with him several top clients, including Rady Children's Hospital of San Diego, Children's Hospital of Orange County, Sharp Community Medical Group, Cal Optima (Orange Prevention Treatment Integrated Medical Assistance) and Healthcare Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties.

"There are so few recognized experts in the industry," Turner said. "We're even happier thinking about the crossover (possibilities). We've already seen extensive interaction with our existing practice groups, so we're really very sanguine about the health care practice with Procopio."

Former Foley & Lardner attorneys Diane Racicot, Celia Brewer, Wendy Tucker and Mary Norvell join Procopio as senior counsel while Sahyeh Fattahi, John Lemmo and Alyssa (Aiko) Osugi join the firm as associates.

Root was former chair of Foley's health care industry team and also original managing partner of Foley's San Diego office.

One of the reasons Root made the switch was because the billing rates at Foley, like most national firms, were becoming too cost-prohibitive for his clients. In addition, several members of the health care team work on flex time, which is more costly to maintain at a national firm as well.

"Greg's area is municipality, and Jody's is health care," said Larry Watanabe, a legal recruiter for Watanabe & Nason. "Those areas are fairly rate-sensitive. When it comes to financial terms, Procopio is more nimble (than national firms) in that area. They have greater flexibility to compete with billing rates for those clients."

Moser was managing partner of Foley's San Diego and Sacramento offices for the past five years and represents public sector clients throughout California, including health care districts, school and water districts, and charter schools.

He also is general counsel to several public self-insurance pools for general liability, medical malpractice and workers' compensation liability.

"Procopio has an outstanding reputation," Moser said. "We look forward to working with these talented attorneys to enhance the service we provide to our clients."

For Root, who hadn't switched firms in 22 years, the prospect of moving was daunting. Fortunately, he said, his clients were very receptive to the change.

"My clients have been marvelous," he said. "They like the fact a considerable factor in the move was for their own benefit."

He said he's always been fond of Procopio but never considered the firm because it didn't offer a health care practice.

"I like the idea of having a very friendly, collegial place to work at," Root said. "Procopio has always had that reputation, and I'm finding that to be true."

Part of Procopio's new practice will focus on regulatory and governmental compliance-related matters such as health care false claims and compliance counseling, Medicare and Medicaid-related issues, legislation and corporate integrity agreements.

Group members will represent hospitals, physician groups, HMOs, COHSs, public agencies, medical equipment and device companies and ancillary providers in a wide range of medical staff, licensing and certification, provider operations and health insurance issues.