Legal News

Godfather of healthcare lawyers dies at 93

By Jason Siegel

James Ludlam, who joined Musick Peeler nearly 70 years ago, died on Tuesday of unknown causes. He was 93.

Ludlam was of counsel at the firm and focusing on healthcare law throughout his career, a pioneer in the field in California and nationally and regarded as the dean of healthcare lawyers by peers.

According to his firm profile, Ludlam "was the leader in the enactment of tort reform in the passage of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, one of the most comprehensive malpractice liability reform statutes in the country."  The law eased a crisis in th 1970s, where doctors were leaving the state and giving up their practices due to high malpractice insurance premiums cause by runaway jury awards, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Ludlam was an honarary fellow of the American College of Hospital Administrators and the American College of Legal Medicine and an American Bar Foundation fellow.

He was also general counsel, advocate and spokesperson for the California Hospital Assn. for thirty years and general counsel at the Hospital Council of Southern California (now called the Healthcare Assn. of Southern California) for nearly 40 years, the Times reported.

Ludlam and three other lawyers founded the Society of Hospital Attorneys, which became the American Health Lawyers Assn.

He worked on healthcare policy until last month, the Times reported.

Services will be private and memorial donations should go to the House Ear Institute and the National Health Foundation.

Los Angeles Times Obituary

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 18, 2008 (boomark / email).