Elizabeth L. Dalton

Of Counsel, Industry Group Leader

(405) 552-2217 | elizabeth.dalton@mcafeetaft.com | Oklahoma City

Overview
Experience
Honors & Involvement

Bio overview

Elizabeth L. Dalton’s practice includes corporate, securities and franchise law with emphasis on issues relating to the healthcare industry for both taxable and tax-exempt clients. She represents clients in a wide range of business transactions, including organization, acquisitions and mergers, secured and unsecured lending, and business contracts. A significant portion of her practice consists of advising physicians, hospitals and other providers on regulatory and transactional matters affecting the healthcare industry, including development of facilities, certificates of need and licensing, affiliations and joint ventures, reimbursement, Medicare and other payer audits and appeals, physician compensation arrangements, antitrust, Stark law/physician self-referral restrictions, fraud and abuse, and anti-kickback laws.

Elizabeth serves as leader of the firm’s Medical Marijuana Industry Group and has previously served on the firm’s board of directors and as leader of the firm’s Healthcare Group.

Her experience and expertise have earned her inclusion in Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America (antitrust law; business organizations; corporate governance law; corporate law; franchise law; health care law; non-profit/charities law) and Oklahoma Super Lawyers, where she has been named to the list of “Top 25 Women Lawyers” each year since the magazine’s debut in 2006. She was selected by Best Lawyers as the “Oklahoma City Franchise Lawyer of the Year” for 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2023, “Oklahoma City Health Care Lawyer of the Year” for 2010, “Oklahoma City Business Organizations Lawyer of the Year” for 2015, Oklahoma City Corporate Lawyer of the Year” for 2017 and 2020, and “Oklahoma City Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year” for 2021, honors given to a single lawyer in each legal specialty in each market.

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Experience, Honors, & Awards

Representative Experience

Represented a large healthcare company in reorganizing and simplifying its capitalization and organizational structure through a series of mergers and other related transactions including, among other things, a private securities offering and amendment of existing credit facility.
Structured integration of several physician group practices with hospitals to create provider-based clinics and free-standing facilities.
Negotiated and structured joint venture among four hospitals (two of which were owned by major hospital systems) to create a specialty hospital.
Assisting physicians and other healthcare providers in forming joint ventures to develop imaging facilities, sleep labs, clinical laboratories, physical therapy centers and other healthcare facilities.
Representing hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers in drafting and negotiating professional services contracts, recruitment agreements, lease agreements, service agreements and employment contracts.
Ongoing representation of several physician-owned hospitals.
Assisted significant national charity in streamlining organization through series of mergers to create regional divisions.
Represented various physicians and physician group practices in connection with False Claims Act lawsuits, overpayments, audits and appeals.
Represented hospital in connection with Department of Justice’s national enforcement initiative regarding Medicare billing for implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), coordinating experts to defend hospital practices and compliance department to implement proactive procedures to ensure regulatory conformity.
Represented manufacturer and national wholesale food distributor in establishment and ongoing operations of franchise systems.

Honors and Awards

Listed in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business
Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (antitrust law; business organizations; corporate governance law; corporate law; franchise law; health care law; non-profit/charities law)
Named “Oklahoma City Franchise Lawyer of the Year” for 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2023, “Oklahoma City Health Care Lawyer of the Year” for 2010, “Oklahoma City Business Organizations Lawyer of the Year” for 2015, “Oklahoma City Corporate Lawyer of the Year” for 2017 and 2020, and “Oklahoma City Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year” for 2021 by The Best Lawyers in America
Listed in Oklahoma Super Lawyers
Named to Oklahoma Super Lawyers’ list of “Top 25 Women Lawyers”
Rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings
Named by The Journal Record as a “Fifty Making a Difference” honoree and finalist for “Woman of the Year” honors (2008 and 2013)
Honored with The Journal Record’s Leadership in Law Award, recognizing legal professionals for their professional and civic contributions to the state (2007)

Professional Organizations and Memberships

Oklahoma County Bar Association
Oklahoma Bar Association (Former Chair, Health Law Section)
American Bar Association (Health Law Section; Business Law Section; Forum on Franchising)
Oklahoma Health Lawyers Association (Past Member, Board of Directors)
American Health Law Association
William J. Holloway, Jr. American Inn of Court (Master of the Bench)

Civic Involvement and Leadership

OKC Beautiful (Past President)
Upward Transitions (Advisory Board; Past President)
Lynn Institute for Healthcare Research, Inc. (Secretary, Board Member)
Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma (Past Member, Board of Development)
Leadership Oklahoma City (Class XXIII)
Rotary Club of Oklahoma City

ATPs display in this column

At The Podium

Fraud and Abuse Update

Annual Checkup: Healthcare Industry Seminar 2022

Oklahoma City, OK | April 27, 2022

Healthcare Year in Review

Annual Checkup: Healthcare Industry Seminar 2019

Oklahoma City, OK | May 8, 2019

Medical Marijuana Business Issues and Risks

OSCPA Banking & Industry Symposium

Oklahoma City, OK | April 18, 2019

Commercial Medical Marijuana Licenses – Legal Issues

Oklahoma Cannabis: A Day of Learning

Oklahoma City, OK | January 15, 2019

Attorney Articles

Articles

Physician Compensation Arrangements Under the Stark Law: Deciphering Fair Market Value, Commercial Reasonableness and the ‘Takes into Account’ Prohibition

Oklahoma Bar Journal — Vol. 86, No. 2 | January 1, 2015

Practice Areas

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Industry Groups

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Admissions

Oklahoma, 1985
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma

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Education

J.D., Southern Methodist University, 1985
- Order of the Coif; Phi Delta Phi; Editor, Journal of Air Law and Commerce
B.A. (Economics), University of Virginia, 1981

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