David J. Greenburg: In Memoriam
David J. Greenburg, the founder of the American Health Lawyers
Association, passed away on November 14 at the George Washington
University Hospital Center in Washington, DC. David Greenburg was
instrumental in the formation of both the American Academy of Healthcare
Attorneys and the National Health Lawyers Association, the predecessor
organizations that merged to form AHLA. David worked tirelessly in the
development of the two organizations, and Health Lawyers' success today
is due in large part to Mr. Greenburg's creativity, entrepreneurship,
and vision.
Condolences can be sent to David's sister:
Miriam Finard
Arbor Glen
100 Monroe St.
Bridgewater, NJ 08807
Submit
your own memories and stories of David Greenburg. We will be
featuring these recollections on our website and will include a
selection of them in a special tribute to David Greenburg in the January
2008 issue of Health Lawyers News magazine.
Click here
to read memories and recollections already submitted by those who knew
David Greenburg.
Click here
to read David J. Greenburg's obituary from The Washington Post, November
19, 2007
The December 2007 issue of Health Lawyers News
magazine will
include the news of Mr. Greenburg's passing as well as a tribute in
Peter Leibold's "Executive Notes" column. This tribute is reprinted
below.
The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and an
actualizer... He can visualize something, and when he visualizes it he
sees exactly how to make it happen.—Robert L. Schwartz
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into
reality.—Warren G. Bennis
David J. Greenburg, an entrepreneur and leader, translated the vision
of the first health lawyers into the reality of a health law
association. He truly was the father of our Association, and on November
14, 2007, David passed away in the intensive care unit of the George
Washington University Hospital. A victim of childhood polio, David's
lungs finally could not provide his body with enough oxygen, and he died
at the age of 82. David has left us, but his leadership of the
healthcare bar will never be forgotten.
David loved the American Health Lawyers Association. He and I talked
at least once a year for the last eight years so that he could receive
an update on the Association's activities and dispense valuable advice,
gleaned from years of his hands-on experience. David gave his heart and
soul to the founding both of AHLA's predecessor organizations, and
AHLA's success today would not have been possible without the vision and
sweat equity that David invested 40 years ago. As David described it,
"It was a great ride, and was the most interesting thing I did in my
whole life. I loved helping those who were entering a whole new branch
of law."
In 1967, several lawyers who would become future giants of health
law, including Jim Ludlum, Don Bierle and Nate Hershey, approached the
President of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and requested a
forum for this new brand of lawyer - the health lawyer. Arthur
Bernstein, the AHA's General Counsel, hired David Greenburg to make this
loose concept into a reality. David immediately recognized the value of
the new health lawyers' vision and developed a plan to actualize that
vision.
As many lawyers who fashioned themselves generally as corporate or
regulatory lawyers began to deal with issues related to Medicare and
Medicaid, David recognized that this group of lawyers had the potential
to become a concrete specialty area. The creation of Medicare and
Medicaid and the infusion of federal dollars into the health care system
would require a group of legal experts to understand the statute and the
regulations implementing these new programs. Before most, David
recognized that when the federal government begins to spend serious
money in an area, regulations follow, and regulatory experts become
necessary to conduct business effectively. David developed a monthly
legal bulletin that included advance sheets of health law related cases
and coordinated several educational programs for hospital attorneys for
the newly minted Society of Hospital Attorneys. This organization went
through several name changes, finally settling on the American Academy
of Healthcare Attorneys in 1983. The Academy remained a component of the
AHA until it merged into the American Health Lawyers Association in
1997.
When the American Hospital Association asked David to move to Chicago
in order to run the Society of Hospital Attorneys, he begged off because
of his desire to remain in Washington, DC. He then began consulting in
Washington, and in 1971, he accepted a consulting position with the
Group Health Association of America (GHAA). When Congress passed the
federal HMO Act, the same phenomenon occurred at GHAA as had occurred at
the AHA. A group of gifted lawyers, including GHAA's general counsel,
James Doherty, wanted to create a forum to exchange information and
ideas about the legal issues related to these emerging healthcare
delivery models.
David organized several "lawyers conferences," and after they proved
successful, Jim Doherty, Jamie Clements, and David, met in Dallas, TX to
lay out plans for the National Health Lawyers Association (NHLA). Jamie
and Jim relied on David's experience to translate the lawyers' urge for
education, camaraderie and networking into a community of learners,
known as an association. In 1971, the NHLA was incorporated in
Washington, DC and attracted a diverse set of health lawyers who
represented the entire spectrum of the healthcare industry. David then
ran the NHLA until 1991. The organization grew from its humble
beginnings to an organization of over 7,000 members at the time of its
merger with the American Academy of Healthcare Attorneys.
This history demonstrates that David truly was the founding organizer
of both of the entities that ultimately merged into the American Health
Lawyers Association, and as he said, "it was the most interesting thing
[he] did in his whole life." The current staff and membership are
incredibly indebted to him for the leadership, creativity and drive he
showed in founding both organizations.
As any creator of something new, David loved what he had been
instrumental in creating. In our conversations, he marveled that we had
transformed his legal bulletin into an electronic health law digest. As
an entrepreneur and creator, he did not mourn necessary change, provided
that the association continued to innovate, improve, and most
importantly, provide benefits to the lawyers in the new specialty area
that he had identified 40 years ago. In my last conversation with him,
he again reflected on the strengths of the organization that he had
shepherded into existence.
We will miss David J. Greenburg. He was so committed to the health
law bar and to the American Health Lawyers Association. He translated
the vision of several talented lawyers who sought to know more about
health law into the reality of a thriving health law association. Most
importantly, he imbued this new association with a commitment to
excellence, a love of the law, and, perhaps most importantly, with
heart. The camaraderie, community and companionship that so many of our
members say distinguish this association from so many others really is
the legacy of David J. Greenburg. And it is a legacy of which he and his
family should be justifiably proud. While his lungs may have failed, his
heart never did, and his spirit will live on in the knowledge shared and
most importantly in the friendships made among health lawyers. God bless
David J. Greenburg.
Peter M. Leibold
Executive Vice President/CEO
American Health Lawyers Association
December 2007
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