Helping people job No. 1 for Fields

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When asked what made her want to become an attorney, Heather Fields cannot recall a time when she didn’t want to be one.

“When I was younger I didn’t really know why I wanted to be an attorney, but I knew it was about helping people,” she said, adding no one in her family is a lawyer but they worked in public-service jobs such as teaching in public schools and providing mental health services.

After graduating from Chicago’s DePaul University College of Law, Fields earned a Healthcare Compliance Certification and is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional. For more than 20 years she has assisted clients with a variety of regulatory, transactional and compliance-related matters, including conducting internal investigations, advising clients in connection with fraud and abuse issues related to operations, and various health care provider relationships and transactions.

Fields also handles patient safety and quality-of-care issues, peer review matters and medical staff issues, including corrective actions, fair hearings and drafting and review of medical staff bylaws and other governance documents. She advises clients on designing and implementing corporate compliance programs and assessing compliance program effectiveness, all aspects of HIPAA compliance and clinical research compliance.

“I enjoy most being able to help my clients either solve issues or better understand how they can run their businesses and initiate their mission. I work with a lot of nonprofits and I feel good that in some small way I can help them better serve their clients,” she said.

Fields, noting that health law is ever-changing and often convoluted, meets with many clients who are anxious about their future.

“I see people at very challenging times,” she said. “Helping them navigate through that is something that is very powerful to me, and I learn something from my clients on every project.”

Fields is a shareholder in her firm’s Health Care Practice; chair of its Hospitals and Health Care Systems Group; and a member of its White Collar Litigation and Corporate Compliance, Hospice and Palliative Care, and Tax-Exempt Organizations groups.

“Heather has been an integral member of our firm not only as an exceptional lawyer and leader, but also as a highly respected educator and mentor within our profession, our community and in the health care industry,” said Jerry Janzer, the firm’s chief executive officer. “Her dedication and commitment to the practice of law greatly demonstrates how deserving she is of this prestigious honor.”