Ken Smersfelt
Overview
Ken Smersfelt is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Health Care Group in the Los Angeles office. His practice focuses on complex litigation, class actions, and alternative dispute resolution. Ken routinely defends large health care, consumer products, and financial services companies against class and individual claims of unfair competition, false advertising, fraud, breach of contract, bad faith, and negligence. In addition to defending these types of claims brought by private parties, Ken also has experience defending similar claims and accusations made by regulators, government agencies, and prosecutors. He has successfully defended clients in jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations.
Career & Education
- Santa Clara University School of Law, J.D., summa cum laude, 1993
- University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1989
- California
Ken's Insights
Firm News | 5 min read | 08.06.25
Chicago – August 06, 2025: Crowell & Moring today announced that a group of 16 highly regarded health care litigation partners is joining the firm, together with their team, and led by accomplished trial attorney Martin J. Bishop. The strategic combination creates one of the largest health care practices in the country and expands the firm’s ability to provide clients across the industry with the full spectrum of litigation, investigations, regulatory, transactional, and recovery capabilities. The team joins from Reed Smith, where Bishop served on the firm’s executive committee.
Representative Matters
- Defended health plan against negligent delegation claim by Emergency Room physicians arising from the insolvency of an Independent Practice Association to whom the plan delegated ER payment responsibilities. (Centinela Freeman Emergency Medical Associates, et al. v. HealthNet of California, Inc., et al., 1 Cal.5th 994 (2016).
- Defended health plan against a class action case alleging that the plan did not provide allegedly mandated infertility coverage. (Dunn Yeager v. Blue Cross of California, 175 Cal. App. 4th 1098 (2009)).
- Defended putative class actions regarding a managed care plan’s marketing, sale, and implementation of Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, including successful opposition to a motion for Temporary Restraining Order.
- Defended numerous state court and ERISA putative class actions against managed care plans arising from medical necessity and utilization management determinations.
- Defended numerous putative class actions and individual cases by non-contracted medical providers who assert non-payment or inadequate payment of benefits by managed care plans.
- Defended putative class action under a California statute that requires reporting of certain information related to prescription drugs.
- Defended health plan and health insurer in high profile litigation, both class and individual cases, involving the rescission of coverage.
- Defended health plan and health insurer in class action settlement alleging numerous claims arising from the mail order delivery of HIV/AIDs pharmaceuticals.
- Defended health plan and health insurer in class action settlement alleging various claims arising from an alleged “death spiral” due to plan closures.
- Defended health plan and health insurer in class action settlement alleging various claims arising from the preparing and delivery of group health coverage contracts.
- Defended health plans and health insurers in hundreds of complex bad faith, breach of contract, and unfair competition cases arising from the denial of benefits and related issues.
- Defended health plans and health insurers in arbitrations with facilities and other providers regarding various complex claims arising from benefit payments pursuant to the parties’ contracts.
- Defended health plans in various U.S. District Courts against ERISA benefits lawsuits.
- Defended a health plan in a putative class action claim for breach of contract, torts, and violation of fair process arising from the exclusion of a provider from a network.
- Defended health plan in case by facility alleging violations of Anti-Kickback Statute.
- Defended health plan in case by facility alleging violations of the False Claims Act (FCA).
- Defended health plan against allegations of improper disclosure of private health information.
- Represented health plans and health insurers in responses to federal and state government investigations.
- Defended consumer products companies against class and individual cases raising various claims of breach of contract, tort, unfair competition, and false advertising.
- Defended financial services companies in a variety of class and individual cases raising contract, tort, and statutory claims.
- Represented network infrastructure services provider in an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration regarding fees for wireless technology used in mobile phones in territories including Europe, Asia, and South America.
- Defended multi-national medical equipment manufacturer in arbitrations and court actions arising from claims of breach of contract, tort, and various alleged statutory violations.
- Defend multi-national conglomerates in commercial cases arising from technology licensing agreements.
- Defended health plan that acted as a third-party administrator for a self-funded plan against a member’s claims of breach of contract, bad faith, tort, and unfair competition. (Mintz v. Blue Cross of California, 172 Cal. App. 4th 1594 (2009)).
Ken's Insights
Firm News | 5 min read | 08.06.25
Chicago – August 06, 2025: Crowell & Moring today announced that a group of 16 highly regarded health care litigation partners is joining the firm, together with their team, and led by accomplished trial attorney Martin J. Bishop. The strategic combination creates one of the largest health care practices in the country and expands the firm’s ability to provide clients across the industry with the full spectrum of litigation, investigations, regulatory, transactional, and recovery capabilities. The team joins from Reed Smith, where Bishop served on the firm’s executive committee.
Recognition
- Chambers USA: California Healthcare, 2021-2025
- Selected through peer review for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© for Health Care Law, 2024
Ken's Insights
Firm News | 5 min read | 08.06.25
Chicago – August 06, 2025: Crowell & Moring today announced that a group of 16 highly regarded health care litigation partners is joining the firm, together with their team, and led by accomplished trial attorney Martin J. Bishop. The strategic combination creates one of the largest health care practices in the country and expands the firm’s ability to provide clients across the industry with the full spectrum of litigation, investigations, regulatory, transactional, and recovery capabilities. The team joins from Reed Smith, where Bishop served on the firm’s executive committee.
Ken's Insights
Firm News | 5 min read | 08.06.25
Chicago – August 06, 2025: Crowell & Moring today announced that a group of 16 highly regarded health care litigation partners is joining the firm, together with their team, and led by accomplished trial attorney Martin J. Bishop. The strategic combination creates one of the largest health care practices in the country and expands the firm’s ability to provide clients across the industry with the full spectrum of litigation, investigations, regulatory, transactional, and recovery capabilities. The team joins from Reed Smith, where Bishop served on the firm’s executive committee.
