WASHINGTON, DC—Bates White is pleased to announce that Dr. Leemore Dafny, Professor of Management and Strategy and the Herman Smith Research Professor in Hospital and Health Services at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, has joined the firm as an Academic Affiliate in the Antitrust and Competition and the Healthcare and Life Sciences Practices. Dr. Dafny is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Faculty Fellow at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research, and a Board member of the American Society of Health Economists and the Health Care Cost Institute.
Dr. Dafny recently spent one year as Deputy Director for Health Care and Antitrust at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics, a newly created position designed to enhance the agency’s efforts to promote competition in the healthcare sector. In her FTC role, Dr. Dafny oversaw a staff of more than 50 economists, investigating cases and advising on competitive issues ranging from effects of provider consolidation to reverse payment settlements in the pharmaceutical industry. In addition to her work with the FTC, she has served on the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisers and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Retiree Health Benefits Commission. Dr. Dafny also served as an outside expert to the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice in a health plan merger case.
"We are delighted to have Dr. Dafny join the firm," said Cory Capps, co-chair of Bates White’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice and a Partner in the Antitrust and Competition Practice. "Dr. Dafny’s agency experience coupled with her rigorous academic background and expertise in healthcare markets complements our team’s core competencies." Dr. Dafny joins Dr. Joseph Farrell, former Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics, whom Bates White welcomed to the firm earlier this year.
Dr. Dafny’s academic research focuses on competitive interactions among payers and providers of healthcare services, with an emphasis on antitrust, competitive strategy, and public policy. Notably, Dr. Dafny’s research on health insurance markets was instrumental to policymakers as they developed institutions and policies central to President Obama’s healthcare reform law. She has won the Kellogg School’s leading research prize, the Stanley Reiter Best Paper award, among other accolades at Northwestern University. Her research has been published in leading economics journals and featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
