Leeann Habte

Habte’s expertise is at the complex intersection where health care regulatory compliance meets privacy and cybersecurity. As a certified information privacy professional, she advises health plans, hospitals, physicians, pharmacies and medical device companies, providing crucial counsel on data sharing issues, security breaches, reimbursement and contracting. She is the founding partner of BB&K’s privacy and cybersecurity practice.

The coronavirus brought all those issues into urgent focus and multiplied her workload. Were there many late nights? “When the pandemic started, I sat down at my computer and I just got up,” she said with only a touch of hyperbole in early October. Some of her clients needed to begin offering services via telemedicine. “We had to set up systems and train people on how to use them securely,” Habte said. “That was a big push.”

Another major challenge arose when San Diego-based Cue Health Inc., a research and development company, suddenly needed to transition to a business offering COVID-19 rapid diagnostic test products. “It was tremendous, very rapid growth,” she said. Over six months, Habte led the company’s work to put in place a privacy framework for the collection, transmission and storage of sensitive test data. She also assisted with associated privacy policies and end user license agreements. And she provided oversight for a security risk assessment and the creation of security policies.

“They hired thousands of people and created a manufacturing facility with robotics,” Habte said. “We helped with the legal infrastructure to make their big transition happen and to ensure their regulatory compliance and data privacy policies were not just adequate but exemplary.”

As Cue prepared to file for a $3 billion IPO in September 2021, Habte spearheaded the development of template customer and supply chain agreements to facilitate the company’s contractual relations with customers like the National Basketball Association, the Mayo Clinic, Google Inc., the federal government, distributors and others.

For another major client, Habte assisted the Los Angeles County health care system to enhance its care coordination for high-risk clients with multiple conditions such as homelessness and mental health issues. She and the county took an innovative approach to the complex state and federal regulatory issues governing behavioral health data. “Data sharing in this area is extremely sensitive, but essential to providing integrated care,” she said.

Habte does a considerable amount of pro bono work for the nonprofit Alliance for Children’s Rights, which focuses on the needs of foster children, working with medically disabled clients. “Helping young people one by one with those with the least access to resources is a wonderful opportunity we have as attorneys,” she said.

--John Roemer