William L. Abalona

Retired Partner

Overview Representative Matters

Overview

Bill Abalona is a partner and health care lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. His practice is devoted largely to representing hospitals and health systems in complex transactions, regulatory and legislative matters. Mr. Abalona is a member of the firm's Health Care Industry Team and the Government & Public Policy Practice.

Mr. Abalona represents hospitals and integrated health systems on a variety of transactional and regulatory matters. He provides strategic counseling to hospitals, health systems and trade associations in the development and execution of business and public policy. He represents hospitals before regulatory bodies and participates in litigating large payment issues. Working with the firm's public advocacy practice, he provides legislative counsel and advocacy at the state and federal level. He provides counseling on major compliance and audit response cases, focusing on the role of governing boards. His practice encompasses antitrust and anti-referral law counseling, state Attorney General review of the transfer of nonprofit hospital assets, licensing and state building permit issues for health facilities, payment and referral counseling, and Knox-Keene Act filings on behalf of health plans. His transactional experience includes hospital mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings; structuring private management of public hospitals; sale/acquisition transactions and joint ventures involving clinics; and liquidating hospitals and subsidiaries, (including a captive off-shore insurance company). He served as general counsel for a large, acute hospital for several years, and as legal adviser to the board of directors of a state hospital association.

Prior to entering the practice of law, Mr. Abalona was extensively involved in health legislation. He served for more than eight years as a committee consultant to the California Assembly, principally as the health and welfare consultant to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee...

After leaving the legislature in 1980, Mr. Abalona spent four years heading up the government relations program for the California Hospital Association prior to entering the private practice of law.

Recognition

Mr. Abalona has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© in the field of health care since 2013.

Education

Mr. Abalona is a graduate of McGeorge School of Law (J.D., 1978) and California State University, Sacramento (B.A., 1967; M.A., government, 1969).

Admissions

He was admitted to the California Bar in 1979.

Representative Matters

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Foley advised Canadian Solar Inc., one of the world's largest solar power companies, in its acquisition of Recurrent Energy, LLC, a leading North American solar energy developer, from Sharp Corporation for approximately $265 million. This represents the largest solar transaction to date that the Foley Energy Industry Team has closed.

Foley served as counsel for the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) in its role as domestic regulator of Ambac Assurance Corporation (AAC) and as rehabilitator of the Segregated Account of AAC. We have been closely involved with the overall restructuring of AAC, including the recently announced global settlement with the CDO of ABS counterparties.

Advise a public hospital re affiliation strategies with potential hospital and clinic partners and related regulatory issues , in the context of the state's innovative Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration. Our advice includes payments analysis, legislation involving the creation and possible implementation of a stand-alone hospital authority, physician-hospital organization strategies, delivery organization and financing, and antitrust.