Brenna Kelly

Brenna D. Kelly

Partner
About

Brenna Kelly represents healthcare and life sciences companies in commercial and tort litigation. She also counsels these clients, and others, in regulatory matters, employment disputes, and investigations.

Brenna has significant experience in all phases of litigation and investigation, including case assessment and strategy, witness interviews, fact and expert witness preparation and deposition, document discovery, and dispositive and other motion practice. She has also argued dispositive motions in federal courts, and examined witnesses in arbitration.

Brenna also provides counseling on regulatory matters concerning the Anti-Kickback Statute, and other state and federal laws applicable to healthcare and life sciences clients. Brenna teaches health law and policy as a lecturer at the Thomas Jefferson University, College of Population Health.

In addition to her successful track record in the healthcare and life sciences space, Brenna represents companies in employment disputes and provides anti-harassment training.

Brenna takes pride in her active pro bono practice and community involvement. She successfully represented the Navajo Nation in a Voting Rights Act, obtaining dismissal on the cross-motion she argued in the District of Utah. She has also litigated a prisoner rights action and represented a free medical clinic and a food cooperative in various matters. She is currently the Vice President of the Legal Clinic for the Disabled, a non-profit entity providing free legal services to low-income people with mental and physical disabilities, and an elected Committeeperson in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.

Bar admissionsNew JerseyNew YorkPennsylvania
CourtsUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of PennsylvaniaUnited States District Court for the Western District of PennsylvaniaUnited States District Court for the Middle District of PennsylvaniaUnited States District Court for the District of New JerseyUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York

EXPERIENCE

Representative Experience:
  • Represented pharmaceutical company at arbitration. Performed the direct and cross examination of witnesses. The panel decided the case fully in favor of the client, including an award of attorneys' fees.
  • Represented medical device company in state court litigation alleging tortious conduct. Drafted motion to dismiss, which was granted.
  • Represented pharmaceutical company in federal court litigation concerning commercial dispute. Argued motion for summary judgment, which was granted.
  • Represented hospital in Medicare appeal and prevailed in full.
  • Represented medical device company in SEC investigation, which resulted in the termination of the investigation.
  • Represented behavioral health clinics and a laboratory company in FCA investigations and litigation.
  • Represented specialty pharmacy in federal litigation concerning the reimbursement of its products.
  • Represented interstate agency in intellectual property dispute.
  • Represented entity in employment dispute which resulted in the plaintiff dismissing all claims prior to the filing of a motion to dismiss.
  • Represented convenience store chain in employment disputes, including a multi-plaintiff action which was dismissed.
  • Represented national restaurant chains in mediation regarding employment disputes.
Education
  • J.D., University of Michigan
  • M.P.H., Health Management & Policy, University of Michigan
  • B.A., Biochemistry and Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania

Bylines

  • DOJ increases scrutiny of nursing home industry, 1 April, 2020
  • False Claims Act – Year in Review: 2018, 4 February, 2019
  • DOJ tells SCOTUS it plans to seek to dismiss a major qui tam action because burdensome FCA discovery would not be in the public interest, 6 December, 2018
  • Co-author, "Post-Escobar Courts Reaching Consensus On FCA Materiality," Law360, 27 March, 2017
  • Co-author with Jill Horwitz, and John DiNardo, Wellness incentives in the workplace: cost savings through cost shifting to unhealthy workers, Health Affairs 32(3), 468 (2013). Cited in the Final Rule for Incentives for Nondiscriminatory Wellness Programs in Group Health Plans, 78 Fed. Reg. 33157, 33170, 3 June, 2013
  • Author, Systematic Review: Individuals' Goals for Surrogate Decision-Making, 60 J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 884 (May 2012). Cited in the Supreme Court Amici Curiae Brief filed in 2016 by the AARP, Justice in Aging, National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, and Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency of the Bluegrass, in Kindred Nursing Ctrs. v. Janis E. Clark

Prior Experience

  • Brenna served as a federal law clerk in the Eastern District of New York.
  • While pursuing her graduate work at the University of Michigan, Brenna taught biochemistry, molecular biology laboratory, and sociology as a Graduate Student Instructor.
  • Prior to law school, Brenna worked as an immunology researcher at NYU Medical Center and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

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