Elise Dunitz Brennan

Elise has practiced law for over 40 years with an emphasis in healthcare law for the last 30 years. She started as a litigator handling commercial and employment litigation, and administrative hearings. She enjoyed representing a hospital in a medical staff peer review hearing, so she moved her practice to healthcare law, including business and transaction issues. Her practice concentrates on the general representation of healthcare systems, including hospitals, pharmaceutical and device companies, and long-term care facilities. She specializes in operational and regulatory support, compliance planning, mergers and acquisitions, HIPAA, billing issues, Medicare, Antikickback, Stark, EMTALA, managed care, physician recruitment, physician medical staff issues, licensure, Certificate of Need and Change of Ownership, peer review hearings, fraud and abuse, risk management and new service development. Recently, her practice has included corporate governance issues; healthcare provider integration initiatives such as gain sharing or service line arrangements, and joint ventures; and provider/payor contracting issues. She serves as an Arbitrator on the Commercial, Large Complex Commercial, Employment and Healthcare Panels of the American Arbitration Association and as an Arbitrator, Mediator and Trainer for the American Health Lawyers Association. Chambers USA, the leading evaluator of attorneys, referred to Ms. Brennan as “an outstanding healthcare lawyer with a strong suit in the representation of institutions and transactions.” Ms. Brennan is the first Oklahoma attorney elected as a Fellow of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Elise has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma for since 2018. She regularly teaches Professional Relations in Healthcare Enterprises where she provides real-time instruction via zoom in conjunction with Canvas recordings and assignments. Her class covers the evolution and changes in the healthcare delivery system focusing on new types of healthcare entities and allied health practitioners. Her lectures cover topics such as credentialling, peer review, corrective action, scope of practice, the Health Care Quality Improvement Act, the National Practitioner Data Bank, and when various types of healthcare entities are liable for the provider’s action, the legal theory for liability and how to minimize liability. She also teaches an adult education course on comparative healthcare systems.

Elise is ranked as a Band 1 attorney with Chambers, which is the highest individual tier ranking. She was selected by her peers to be recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Healthcare Law and Litigation and has been in each edition of this publication and Super Lawyers since 1991. In 2011 she was named Tulsa Healthcare Lawyer of the year. She received the Oklahoma Journal Record for Leadership in Law Award in 2013, the Oklahoma Journal Record Women of the Year Award in 2014, the Oklahoma Bar Association Spotlight Award in 2018 and has been named as one of the top 25 attorneys in Oklahoma since 2021.