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Kelly Hightower Hibbert

Partner | She/Her/Hers

Overview

Kelly Hightower Hibbert is a partner in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office, where she is a member of the firm’s Health Care Group. Kelly focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and arbitral forums. She is also experienced in defending government investigations involving False Claims Act allegations. In addition to her work as defense counsel, Kelly represents health care clients pursuing recovery of monies lost as a result of fraud, waste, and abuse.

Kelly has represented clients in multiple spaces within the health care industry, including health benefit plans, electronic health record providers, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical distributors, acute-care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care providers, rehabilitation centers, and individual health care providers. In her extensive experience, she has managed a variety of cases from the investigative stage through appeal. Kelly has taken and defended the depositions of fact and expert witnesses. She has drafted and argued numerous discovery, in limine, and dispositive motions, as well as appellate briefs, at the federal and state court levels. She has also successfully represented clients as a second-chair trial team member in multiple jury trials to verdict.

During law school, Kelly served on the editorial board of the Catholic University Law Review and represented the Columbus School of Law at multiple regional and national moot court competitions, where she received best brief and overall best oral advocate awards. She was also an extern for the Honorable Leonard Braman in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Following law school, Kelly clerked for the Honorable Robert A. Greenberg in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland. Prior to joining Crowell & Morning, Kelly was a counsel at a large law firm in Washington, D.C., where she practiced as a litigator servicing the firm’s health care and life sciences clients.

Career & Education

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    • University of Maryland, College Park, B.A., 2006
    • Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, J.D., Magna cum Laude, 2010
    • University of Maryland, College Park, B.A., 2006
    • Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, J.D., Magna cum Laude, 2010
    • District of Columbia
    • Maryland
    • District of Columbia
    • Maryland
  • Professional Activities and Memberships

    • Defense Research Institute
    • American Health Lawyers Association

    Professional Activities and Memberships

    • Defense Research Institute
    • American Health Lawyers Association

Representative Matters

  • Defended an electronic health record provider in government investigation into the company’s compliance with requirements of the federal Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program.
  • Represented a pharmaceutical distributor in multidistrict litigation, including bellwether cases, involving prescription opioid medications.
  • Represented a medical device manufacturer in massive multidistrict litigation involving transvaginal and hernia mesh products.
  • Served as outside counsel to the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), an international trade association of medical technology manufacturers. 
  • Defended multiple nationwide nursing home chains in False Claims Act litigation brought by qui tam relators and the Department of Justice.
  • Succeeded in obtaining a defense verdict on behalf of multiple physicians sued for medical malpractice in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland, after a six-day jury trial.
  • Succeeded in obtaining a defense verdict on behalf of a physician sued for medical malpractice in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland, after a five-day jury trial.
  • Successfully briefed and argued in the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland on behalf of a local hospital.

Recognition

  • Super Lawyers: Washington D.C., Rising Star, Health Care, 2016-2020
  • The Best Lawyers in America: Health Care, 2023
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