Barry L. Smith

Barry Smith is a litigator and healthcare lawyer whose far-ranging legal experience extends from the boardroom to the courtroom to the halls of the legislature.

Barry started his career as a trial lawyer and quickly developed experience in a wide range of complex litigation matters, including cases involving medical malpractice, mass torts, products liability, insurance and multi-district litigation. He maintains an active litigation practice with clients facing complex and significant issues. His litigation clients range from medical schools and large health systems to individual entities.

As part of his healthcare practice, he regularly counsels physicians, hospitals and other healthcare facilities on matters such as fraud and abuse, medical staff issues, internal investigations, and dealing with the complex healthcare regulatory scheme and with the agencies charged with enforcing the regulations.

During the course of his career, Barry previously served as a senior vice president of administration and general counsel for a large health system in Oklahoma, where he developed a keen understanding of the day-to-day operational issues affecting health systems and the healthcare industry. That background has been invaluable in assisting clients through difficult joint venture negotiations, acquisitions and with business modeling.

Barry’s experience and expertise have earned him appointments to several legislative task forces and committees examining healthcare and public policy issues, including the State Task Force on Emergency Service and Trauma and Medicaid reform efforts. From 2004 - 2013, Barry served on the Oklahoma State Board of Health, including three years as its president. He was also founding chairperson of the Oklahoma Health Improvement Plan (OHIP) and co-chaired the OHIP Health System Effectiveness Work Group. Barry also serves on the Advisory Board to the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health.

Barry has vast experience in conducting internal investigation and in assisting clients through government investigations. Whether for purposes of self-disclosure, identifying areas of vulnerability, responding to qui tams, or responding to other civil/criminal allegations, a client needs counsel who is experienced and who can quickly assemble the correct team — that background has led to an active practice in helping clients survive the trauma of a problem with the government.

Barry’s achievements have garnered him recognition in The Best Lawyers in America and Oklahoma Super Lawyers. In 2009, he was recognized for his professional and civic contributions to the state by being named to The Journal Record’s list of Leadership in Law honorees.

• Served as primary counsel on several occasions in guiding hospitals and health systems through the Self Disclosure Protocol. This included conducting the investigation, identifying and working with experts for damage calculations, drafting the report, and communicating with the OIG and DOJ.
• Conducted numerous compliance investigations on behalf of hospitals and health systems in multiple states including Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Arkansas.
• Assisted a health care system that had been unable to drop bills for over six months due to difficulty meeting the compliance obligations pursuant to a Corporate Integrity Agreement. The engagement included working with the Medicaid agency and bringing it together with the hospital to gain some common understanding of the billing requirements.
• Lead counsel representing a medical school in litigation over use and distribution of Medicaid medical education funds.
• Developed the team that assisted a national health system in their acquisition of multiple Oklahoma hospitals, including those owned by units of government and held in trust.