Leslie Parker

Leslie D. Parker concentrates her practice in health care regulatory law and commercial litigation. She represents hospitals and health systems, skilled nursing facilities, physician groups, health plans, and other health care businesses and professionals in matters before Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and federal regulatory agencies, and she tries and resolves high-stakes business disputes in state and federal court across Rhode Island and Massachusetts for clients in a wide range of industries.

Leslie’s health care practice includes the regulatory approvals a transaction requires, licensing and enforcement proceedings, and ongoing compliance counseling. She has guided health systems through Hospital Conversions Act reviews before the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General, secured Certificate of Need and Change in Effective Control approvals, and serves as ongoing compliance counsel to health systems operating under the multi-year conditions regulators attach to approved transactions.

Leslie also defends physicians and other licensed professionals in complaint and disciplinary proceedings before Rhode Island and Massachusetts licensing boards. Her practice additionally includes defending skilled nursing facilities in survey, plan of correction, and civil monetary penalty proceedings, and litigating Medicare appeals, provider enrollment disputes, and Medicaid audits and program integrity investigations. Leslie also counsels health care organizations on day-to-day regulatory compliance questions, such as whether a new service line requires licensure, how to respond to a subpoena for patient records, or where clinicians must be licensed when a practice adds telehealth.

In addition, Leslie is an accomplished trial and appellate lawyer. She has obtained defense verdicts, summary judgment, dismissals, and favorable appellate decisions in complex contract and commercial disputes, business torts, trade secret and unfair competition claims, employment discrimination defense, and administrative appeals in courts throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Her practice spans a broad array of clients, including financial institutions, manufacturers, consumer product companies, and healthcare organizations, across a range of disputes. That courtroom experience shapes how she advises on regulatory matters: she counsels clients with an eye toward the record that would be built if the dispute were later litigated.

Leslie also co-chairs the firm’s Cannabis Practice Group, advising licensed cannabis operators on licensing, regulatory compliance, and litigation.