Klein’s focus on clients fits them like a glove

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For Tracey Klein, the best response to any situation is one that makes clients’ needs the priority.

Klein, chair of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren’s health care department, has served health systems for almost 35 years. With her impressive record of serving as a general counsel working on regional and national transactions and corporate governance, she is recognized by her peers for her legal acumen and her attentiveness to clients.

“She is very invested in thinking about how she can make things better for her client,” said Heather Fields, a shareholder at Reinhart who has worked with Klein since 1999. Fields said being able to work with Klein contributed greatly to her decision to join the Reinhart team.

Whether she’s making risky ethical and legal decisions that save a life or providing guidance to community-health organizations, Klein’s talent is as clear as her decision-making.

“In health care, innovation thrives and it’s very important that you have a vision and a clear way to get there. Tracey offers that,” Fields said. “She is very good at thinking through a goal, and she is very targeted in achieving it.”

Klein has been instrumental in improving patient safety by reforming policies concerning malpractice, sentinel events and impairment; she takes pride in helping clients navigate acquisitions that improve cost and quality while maintaining an organization’s nature. Throughout all this, clients find themselves comforted by help from a hand that is influential, steady and fits their needs like a glove.

“Sometimes it’s the simple little things. The way I work and I like our partners to work is trying to work hand-in-glove with the client,” said Klein, who was also honored with a Women in the Law award by the Wisconsin Law Journal in 2016. “We always say to our general counsel ‘We’re going to do the right thing. We’re going to take risks that err on the side of patient quality and we’re going to take risks that err on the side of life,’ and that’s a very big comfort for them.”

Her indefatigable enthusiasm, dedication and innovation carry over into her civic life. Klein often assumes leadership roles in the countless organizations she serves. In addition to having an eight-year term on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, she is a board member and former board president of Milwaukee Film and sits on the Marquette University Law School Advisory Board of Directors.

“She is an innately curious person. Her want to do good in the world and make things better and apply her skills to do that are evidenced by all the different contributions she makes locally and statewide,” Fields said.