Gregory J. Palakow

Greg has handled hundreds of highly specialized litigated matters in over 25 years of practice. Greg now focuses this practice by representing the rights and interests of healthcare providers, including licensed nursing home and long-term care facilities, hospital networks, rehabilitation hospitals, adult day care centers, home health agencies, ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices, fiduciaries and licensed financial institutions. This unique experience has given Greg the opportunity to successfully resolve hundreds of state and federal appeals related to regulatory enforcement and recovery actions. Prior to our successful representation, some of these matters have threatened the viability of the operation of these licensed facilities due to nursing home survey deficiency citations, sizeable civil money penalties, regulatory threats to facility licensure, or denials of payment by CMS. Greg has also handled complicated state actions related to the oversight of Medicaid funding, and managed care contracting and reimbursement issues.

In resolving or achieving dismissals of many regulatory disputes, Greg is a regular and known adversary of the Counsel to Regional Offices of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) across the United States, and to the many staff attorneys of the Deputy Attorney General of the State of New Jersey. In addition to developing strong working relationships with these adversaries, Greg has 15 published decisions in the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Departmental Appeals Board. In addition, Greg also works closely with Archer’s attorneys in this group to handle transactional, regulatory compliance, certification and licensing issues for clients throughout this industry.

This Healthcare Law practice uniquely intersects with the firm’s Immigration and Global Mobility Group, which Greg chaired for many years. In this practice, Greg and the team help clients in the health care field and other industries to obtain visas, work authorization and green cards to address significant shortages of available, qualified workers in these specialty fields. This includes representation of sponsors and beneficiaries in the rigorous J-1 waiver visa programs. He is a longtime member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), New Jersey Chapter. For many years, Greg has been trusted to represent some of the largest hospital networks in our region in this practice.

In this role, Greg counsels international businesses in the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rules and nuances, as well as the Immigration and Nationality Act, (INA), and regarding enforcement actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Greg and the team handle applications before the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the USCIS, the U.S. Department of State, the North American Fair-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the New Jersey Department of Health. Greg represents and protects the rights and businesses of employers who have been audited or raided. Greg has even helped many foreign businesses strategize their initial launch their U.S. offices by obtaining work visas and green cards for their key executive intra-company transferees. He has done so in the areas of sports and casino gaming, entertainment, technology and pharmaceutical testing. Greg has obtained hundreds of work visas for candidates as diverse as high fashion designers, celebrity chefs, technology workers, regulatory legal experts and pediatric trauma surgeons. He has appeared before the USCIS, The Department of Homeland Security, and the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR).

For many years, Greg has handled estate litigation in multi-million-dollar estate, Special Needs Trust and other trust disputes. As a former longtime outside counsel to offices of county government and a Past President of a county bar association, Greg is regularly appointed by the court to study Probate Part disputes and make recommendations as either court appointed administrator, guardian ad litem or counsel, to the court. In these areas of practice, Greg regularly handles cases in the Law Division, Chancery Division, Probate and General Equity Parts, and the State of New Jersey, Office of Administrative Law. Early in his career, Greg immediately gained experience representing both insurers and their insureds in New Jersey courts in the areas of premises and automobile liability, toxic torts and worker’s compensation law.