Profile

Elise Brennan

Partner

I have practiced law for over 40 years, and I’ve been an arbitrator for over 20. The majority of my arbitrations are payor/provider disputes, vendor or service supplier disputes, partnership disputes or physician disputes with hospitals or employers. I am on the AAA health law panel and complex commercial panel. I started serving as a mediator 2 years ago. I took a 40-hour mediation training course with AAA and I have only served as a mediator for health care disputes. I have settled 75% of the cases. I think the depth and breadth of my experience as a practitioner of health law and an arbitrator makes me a better mediator because I understand the issues, I bring credibility to the process, and I can explain how an arbitrator or judge will view the dispute. In arbitration I believe counsel should prosecute their case in the manner they think will be effective so as an arbitrator I give the counsel the opportunity to structure the process, and I only intervene when there are disputes, or the process is not moving. Although I believe that arbitration should be quicker and cheaper than litigation, this does not lead me to believe there is no room for either discovery or appropriate dispositive or partially dispositive motions. Each case is different, and the beauty of arbitration is that an appropriate process can be structured for each case. Although I have not yet served as a hearing officer, having represented health care entities in over 50 due process hearings or credentialling matters, and having served as an expert witness for hospitals in lawsuits resulting from revocation of privileges, network termination or data bank filings, I have the skills to be an effective hearing officer. Practicing full time health care law in Oklahoma, a small market, means that I have had the opportunity to represent all different types of healthcare entities and I have not been tied to one particular group such as providers or payors or hospitals or physicians.

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