Isabelle Bibet-Kalinyak

Isabelle Bibet-Kalinyak (Maître Bibet-Kalinyak) is a member of McDonald Hopkins and a corporate attorney in our national Healthcare Practice Group.  She also leads the firm’s Immigration Practice Group.  In addition, as the only French attorney in the Midwest region, she advises U.S. clients with overseas operations/deals in French-speaking countries and French-speaking companies that desire to expand operations/scope in the U.S.

Isabelle is passionate about business and the law.  Fluent in French, her native language, Isabelle has more than 28 years of international business experience in the healthcare, aerospace and plastics industries. Prior to joining McDonald Hopkins, she worked as a corporate health care attorney for the law firm of Brouse McDowell after honing her legal skills in-house for a major health system (Akron General Health System, now part of the Cleveland Clinic) and a local county hospital (Robinson Memorial Hospital). She served in senior strategic business development positions for a global pharmaceutical company (Sanofi-Aventis). She also served as General Manager of a division for a global manufacturer of aircraft and train parts in Paris, France (Schneller Inc., now a division of the Transdigm Group).  She is a frequent presenter at national and local conferences (American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA), American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators (ASCRS/ASOA), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Ohio Hospital Association, Academy of Medicine of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, etc.) on topics related to health care, mergers and acquisitions, and business immigration.
 
HEALTHCARE
Isabelle has experience in multiple facets of healthcare law such as:

Compliance matters:

• Assisting healthcare providers in navigating the complexities of state and federal regulations
• Analyzing physician/hospital integration models for compliance with the Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, and government payer rules
• Advising clients on gastroenterology/pathology and dermatology/pathology TC/PC and global billing models
• Advising healthcare covered entities and business associates on HIPAA and privacy issues
• Counseling clients on the fast-changing telemedicine federal and state rules 
• Drafting and counseling clients about clinical trial agreements, material transfer agreements (MTAs), and data use agreements (DUAs)
• Advising healthcare providers on various Medicare/Medicaid compliance issues
• Advising healthcare providers on laws and regulations pertaining to nurse practitioners, CRNAs, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists, etc.
• Drafting hospital medical staff bylaws and resolving medical staff issues

Transaction matters:

• Counseling clients about health care mergers and acquisitions in multiple specialties such as anesthesia, behavioral health, dermatology, laboratories/pathology, ophthalmology, etc. 
• Counseling clients about integration and joint ventures strategies with various stakeholders (same-specialty entities, hospitals, private equity investors, etc.)
• Counseling clients about creative corporate and equity structures to assist with physician recruitment and retention and maximize growth and return on investment.
• Counseling clients about buy/sell agreements, including the use of life and disability insurance policies
• Advising clients through phases of entity life cycle (entity selection and set-up, growth, diversification, development, retirement, split-ups, dissolutions, etc.)
• Drafting and negotiating a wide variety of legal documents such as employment agreements, personal service agreements, professional services agreements, medical directorship agreements, call coverage agreements, purchased services agreements, release agreements, lease agreements, operating agreements, code of regulations, and policies 

Representative clients: Isabelle represents health care providers of varying size and corporate structure:

• Ambulatory surgical centers
• Advanced practice registered nurses (NP, CNS, CRNA)
• Billing companies
• Clinical research organizations
• CRNA group practices
• Hospitals (non-profit, physician-owned, adult and pediatric)
• Individual physicians, dentists and chiropractors 
• Laboratories
• Long-term care facilities
• Physician assistants
• Physician group practices
• Veterinary hospitals

Specialties: Isabelle represents a diverse clientele of health care providers in the following specialties:

• Anesthesia
• Behavioral health
• Critical care/pulmonology
• Concierge medicine
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology (adult and pediatric)
• Family practice and internal medicine
• Gastroenterology
• Hospitalists 
• Integrative medicine
• Nephrology
• Neurology (adult and pediatric)
• OB-GYN
• Ophthalmology, optometry, and eye care (member of AOA and ASCRS/ASOA)
• Orthopedic surgery
• Pain management
• Pathology (clinical and anatomic)
• Pediatric medicine
• Psychiatry 
• Radiology 
• Surgery (general, trauma, vascular)
• Veterinary medicine

IMMIGRATION
In the area of immigration law, Isabelle has expertise and represents clients in employment-based immigration matters in the areas of healthcare, biotech, education, retail, and manufacturing. A first generation immigrant herself, she strives to address her foreign national clients’ concerns proactively and coaches them through the entire immigration process.

Representative clients: She represents individuals and employers of varying size and corporate structure:

• Business executives
• Hospitals
• Large retailers
• Physicians and other medical professionals
• Researchers 
• Scientists
• Small and large manufacturers
• Universities

Visa types:  She prepares a variety of visas for processing in the U.S. and at consular posts overseas:

• B1/B2 tourist or business visitor visa extensions
• EAD Employment Authorization Document applications and renewals
• H-1B “specialty occupation” non-immigrant visas
• H-4 non-immigrant dependent visas
• L-1A intracompany multinational manager and executive transferee visas
• L-1B intracompany “specialized knowledge” transferee visas
• L-2 non-immigration dependent visas
• O-1 visas for individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement in sciences, education, or business
• J-1 Conrad 30 visa waivers for physicians
• Green card applications and extensions (EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, NIW)
• U.S. citizenship applications

EDUCATION CREDENTIALS

• J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Akron School of Law (Akron, Ohio)
• MBA from Kent State University (Kent, Ohio)
• B.B.A. in finance, summa cum laude, from Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• B.B.A. in finance from the Centre d’Etudes Franco-Américain de Management (CEFAM in Lyon, France)

HONORS AND AWARDS

• Named in Crain's Cleveland "Five to Watch in Law" (2017)
• Selected for inclusion in Ohio Rising Stars (2017-2019)
• Recipient of Lawyer Monthly Women in Law Award, Healthcare- USA (2018-2019)
• Recipient of the Honorable Arthur J. Goldberg Memorial Prize in Constitutional Law
• Recipient of the Pro Bono Award sponsored by the law firm of Perantinides and Nolan for most completed community service & pro bono hours of all University of Akron graduating part-time students