Sandi Krul

Krul is a leader in the health care real estate practice at Hooper Lundy, which is one of the largest law firms nationally to only represent health care providers. She regularly oversees multimillion-dollar real estate transactions for hospitals and other clients.

Among those deals are nearly half of all the hospital transactions in California funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in the past decade.

Health care real estate deals are not always straightforward, she said. "There's a regulatory overlay to health care real estate that makes it a little bit fraught if you don't know what you're doing," Krul said.

She represents hospitals and other providers all over the state, including a number of rural hospitals, for which she often serves as outside general counsel. She has helped lease or acquire facilities in outlying areas for clinics, a surgery center and a skilled nursing facility.

Closer to home, she served as lead counsel last year for a privately held health care management company in its $24.25 million acquisition of an acute-care psychiatric hospital.

Some of her work does not involve real estate. She often represents MLK Community Healthcare system and its clinics and outreach programs. Krul is helping the system create and implement a Street Medicine program to deliver health care to the homeless.

"It's providing medical care, but in the community, in the streets, going to where they need the care as opposed to having them come to you," she said. Krul negotiated with another provider offering a similar program on ways to work together. She also dealt with the complexities of defining the street program in terms that aligned with California health care licensing categories.

Also, for MLK, Krul negotiated contracts for the system to establish a shelter for patients without permanent housing.

Before joining her current firm, Krul practiced more typical real estate law. She likes the healthcare specialty much better. "The people that you work with and the work that you do - they just make all the difference," she said.

-Don DeBenedictis