Michael Regier, JD, general counsel and secretary at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), has announced that he will retire at the end of the academic year. Douglas Mefford, JD, managing counsel in the Office of Legal Affairs, has been appointed to succeed him effective July 1.
Regier, who has served as VUMC’s first general counsel and secretary, was appointed as special counsel in February 2016 during the final months before the Medical Center’s legal and financial separation from Vanderbilt University. As VUMC became a new entity on April 30, 2016, he assumed his current role.
“I want to thank Michael for his leadership and legal acumen, which have been instrumental to our growth and success as an independent entity. Michael has done an outstanding job representing our interests, and I am grateful for his contributions. I wish him the very best as he looks toward his next phase of life,” said Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of VUMC and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
“I also want to welcome Mr. Mefford as our incoming general counsel and secretary. Doug has been deeply involved in executing many of our strategic growth initiatives including physician practice acquisitions and joint ventures. He understands the intricate environment in which we operate, and I know his decades of experience navigating complex legal issues in health care have prepared him to succeed in this role,” Balser said.
Since 2016, Regier has substantially grown the Medical Center legal affairs staff while leading the legal strategy for VUMC’s growth, including the acquisition of its community hospitals and development of corporate structures to facilitate commercialization of VUMC’s most compelling innovations. Regier has also represented the Medical Center’s interests in numerous legal matters affecting the delivery of care, such as when VUMC joined other academic health systems in actions related to the United Network for Organ Sharing. As a result, the U.S. transplant network is set to be overhauled and modernized for the first time in its nearly 40-year history.
“It has been the greatest privilege of my professional life to serve in this role at VUMC,” said Regier. “Any success I’ve had here is due principally to the work of the incredibly talented and committed teams I have had the good fortune to lead. VUMC’s work — whether in clinical care, research or the academic realm — has tremendous impact on not only our local community, but throughout the world. I wish my colleague Doug Mefford every success in this role and am confident he will make an excellent general counsel for VUMC.”
Mefford joined VUMC in 2013 and has led initiatives to restructure the LifeFlight air ambulance program and Vanderbilt Imaging Services. He has also supported the Medical Center’s regional hospital acquisitions in Lebanon, Shelbyville and Tullahoma, and helped negotiate VUMC’s minority interest in Tennova Healthcare – Clarksville. Recently, he led the Alliance for Genomic Discovery partnership with eight pharmaceutical companies to facilitate genomic sequencing of the BioVU databank.
“I am incredibly honored to be entrusted with this role at VUMC,” said Mefford. “It is both inspiring and fulfilling to support the work of VUMC’s staff, clinicians, researchers and educators as they impact health care locally and around the world, and I am so thankful for the amazing group of people with whom I will continue to partner in providing that support. We are indebted to Michael who, as VUMC’s first general counsel, set a high bar for excellence, professionalism and leadership, and laid a tremendous foundation on which we will continue to build through this vital work. I wish him tremendous happiness in his next chapter of life.”
Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Mefford served as general counsel for Cogent Healthcare (now Sound Physicians), a national provider of hospitalist and intensivist services, and as a senior group counsel for Community Health Systems, a national hospital operator of community hospitals.
Mefford began his legal career with Nashville law firm Bass, Berry & Sims where he practiced in the firm’s corporate and securities group. Mefford is a graduate of Western Kentucky University and the J. David Rosenberg College of Law at the University of Kentucky, where he served on the editorial board of the Kentucky Law Journal. He is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, the Tennessee Bar Association and the Kentucky Bar Association.