Rachel Dvorken

Special Counsel

Rachel comes to AHL with over 30 years of experience as a healthcare lawyer and general counsel, advising health systems, institutional healthcare providers, telehealth/digital health companies, physician practices, and founder-led and investor-backed emerging healthcare companies. For a substantial portion of her career, Rachel served as general counsel and executive leader for various healthcare companies, gaining broad experience in healthcare law, corporate/transactional matters, regulatory compliance, go-to-market strategies (including client/commercial and payor contracting), day-to-day operations, dispute/litigation management, insurance, employment, and governance/corporate secretary functions.

Rachel is recognized as a trusted partner and strategic advisor to healthcare leadership and business teams, driving profitable growth, distilling complex business and legal problems into actionable, practical solutions with highly beneficial outcomes, and mitigating business and legal risks.

SERVICES

  • Outside General Counsel/Fractional General Counsel

  • Healthcare Services/Healthcare Delivery Companies/Healthcare Providers

  • Hospitals + Health Systems

  • Telehealth + Digital Health

  • Founder-Led/Emerging + Investor-Backed Healthcare Services Companies

  • Healthcare Regulatory and Compliance

PRIOR EXPERIENCE & REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

  • Advised the executive, product, technology, clinical, and operations teams of an investor-backed, high-growth telehealth company, guiding the implementation of innovative healthcare services in a compliant manner on a national scale.

  • Partnered with executive leaders of a nationally scaled telehealth company to overhaul the deal review process and template contracts, transitioning to a digital contract lifecycle management system, supporting efficient and profitable commercial contracting and business growth.

  • Led extensive and complex healthcare regulatory diligence supporting the sale of a high-growth telehealth company to a large national payor, achieving a successful outcome in a compressed timeline.

  • Advised an emerging telehealth company on go-to-market strategy with health systems from a healthcare regulatory perspective.

  • Managed/oversaw multiple sensitive and potentially high-exposure compliance, employment, privacy, and litigation/business dispute matters, achieving successful outcomes.

  • Served as the lead member of a diligence team supporting the acquisition by a telehealth company of innovative asynchronous telehealth capabilities; led the legal team supporting the post-acquisition launch of new capabilities at a national scale.

  • Led the legal team supporting the successful completion of a $50 million Series F capital raise for a large telehealth company.

  • Led risk, claims, and insurance management functions for a large health system and a nationally scaled telehealth company.

RECOGNITIONS/TEACHING EXPERIENCE

  • Role Model Award, Harvard Law School Society of Illinois

  • Adjunct Faculty in Health Law, Beazley Institute for Health Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

CREDENTIALS

  • Harvard Law School, cum laude

  • Colgate University, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

  • American Health Lawyers Association

  • Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys (President and Chair, Board of Directors [2007]; Director [2004-2008])

  • Illinois State Bar Association

ADMISSIONS

  • Illinois

PRIOR POSITIONS

  • Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, MDLIVE, a private equity and venture-backed, nationally scaled telehealth company. Following its sale to Cigna, served for two years as lead counsel for the care delivery division, which included home-based care and workplace care businesses. Throughout her tenure at MDLIVE and Cigna, Rachel served as the organization’s lead representative on the board of the Alliance for Connected Care (a leading national advocacy organization for telehealth/digital health).

  • Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Sinai Health System (now Sinai Chicago), Illinois’ largest private safety-net health system. In addition to her role as chief legal officer, Rachel served as the executive lead for the board governance committee and as a legal advisor to the board's finance, audit and compliance, and government affairs committees. She was also appointed interim executive for the Sinai Urban Health Institute, focusing on developing innovative, evidence-based population health management solutions in communities disproportionately affected by illness, poverty, and other social challenges.

  • Deputy General Counsel, Northwestern Memorial Health Care (now Northwestern Medicine)

  • Associate General Counsel, Illinois Masonic Medical Center

  • Associate, Health Law Department, McDermott, Will & Emery

  • Judicial Law Clerk, United States District Court Judge Edward Rafeedie, Central District of California (Los Angeles)

COMMUNITY

  • Working on the Womanhood Council of the Youth Guidance organization, which provides counseling and mentoring to over 2,000 young women in more than 40 Chicago public schools and other schools across the country.

  • Tutor, Tutoring Chicago (formerly Cabrini Green Tutoring Program)

  • Director, Chicago Sinai Congregation