Lowell C. Brown

With 38 years of experience counseling the regulated health care industry, Lowell C. Brown is a regular presence in the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal, handling complex and precedent-setting peer review cases.

One of his recent significant recent cases involved serving as counsel to Providence Health System, overseeing all peer review matters for eight of their twelve California hospitals for more than two decades. Additionally, Brown acts as amicus curiae counsel to the California Hospital Association, representing more than 400 California hospitals in legislative and policy affairs. Notably, Brown’s successful efforts with the CHA include halting the passage of Senate Bill 642 through a last-minute organized effort, which would have had detrimental consequences for California hospital governance.

“The amicus briefs and letters we have handled for the California Hospital Association have carried the member voices of that statewide organization to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court,” Brown said. “In Natarajan v. Dignity Health, the California Supreme Court agreed with CHA’s amicus position. The Court’s holding on hearing officer bias affected every hospital in the state and prevented the hearing process from becoming even more burdensome and less effective than it is already.”

Brown said, “In 2021, my team and I led a last-minute and furious effort to organize other leading California peer review attorneys in order to stop AB 642, which was then on its way to passage in the California Senate. SB 642 would have turned California hospital governance on its head to the public’s lasting detriment. The group succeeded in educating the senators about the statute’s disastrous consequences, and it was withdrawn.”

“Physicians who are the subject of corrective action by their professional peers have strong fair procedure rights,” he continued. “Sadly, the peer review hearing process is such that a physician with a strong will and substantial financial resources can make that process last years. Meanwhile, the physician too often continues to practice medicine and endanger patients.”

Brown noted that California’s medical staff peer review system is broken.

“It takes too long, is poorly understood and horribly expensive, and the Medical Board of California lacks the resources to protect the public effectively,” he said. “A legislative solution is elusive because of the powerful interests opposing reform.”

Beyond his legal work, Brown is actively involved in various health care legal organizations, holding leadership positions and contributing to the field through speaking engagements and conferences. He has also served on the board of trustees of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah and is engaged in multiple health care organizations, such as the California Association for Medical Staff Services. Brown’s commitment to his community is demonstrated through his involvement with the Bio-Medical Ethics Committee of a Los Angeles County hospital and as a board member of the Venice Family Clinic, a nonprofit organization providing primary health care to those in need.