Joanne Lax Elected to American Health Lawyers Association’s Board of Directors

Dykema, a leading national law firm, today announced that Joanne R. Lax, a Bloomfield Hills-based member of the firm’s Health Care Practice Group, has been elected to the American Health Lawyers Association’s (AHLA) Board of Directors. Lax has been a member of the AHLA since 1990 and has served the organization in a number of roles, including as chair and one of the vice chairs of the Post-Acute and Long Term Services Practice group, and as a member of the Advisory Council on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, the Mentoring Committee and the Nominating Committee. In addition, Lax is a regular speaker at AHLA programs and is a contributing author of several AHLA publications.

AHLA President Lois Dehls Cornell offered congratulations to Lax and the other new leaders, saying “AHLA is happy to welcome a new group of leaders who have proven that their talents and leadership skills far exceed expectations.”

With 13,000 members, AHLA is the nation’s largest, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) educational organization devoted to legal issues in the health care field. Its mission is to provide a collegial forum for interaction and information exchange to enable its members to serve their clients more effectively; to produce the highest quality non-partisan educational programs, products, and services concerning health law issues; and to serve as a public resource on selected healthcare legal issues.

Lax’s practice focuses on two major areas of the law—health care law and private adoptions and surrogacies. Her health care practice concentrates upon State and Federal regulatory compliance, administrative hearings, data privacy and security including HIPAA requirements, and patient rights and biomedical ethics—for a variety of health care providers with an emphasis upon post-acute and long-term care.

In addition to her service to AHLA, Lax has served as the Chair and is now a Fellow of the State Bar of Michigan’s Health Care Law Section, and has served two terms on LeadingAge’s Legal Committee, a national trade association of nonprofit long-term care providers. She was named “Lawyer of the Year” for Health Care law in Detroit by Best Lawyers®, 2012 and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Health Care Law, 2012-2016. In addition, she has been named a Michigan Leading Lawyer in the areas of Adoption & Reproductive Technology and Health Law by the Leading Lawyers Network, 2014-2016, and named a Top Lawyer by dbusiness Magazine for Health Care Law, 2013 and 2015. She is also a recipient of an AV® Preeminent™ Rating by Martindale-Hubbell.