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Jeanna Palmer Gunville

Healthcare Transactions and Regulatory Partner at Morgan Lewis

Chicago, IL

JP
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Why they matter

A Chicago healthcare regulatory dealmaker who structures PE-backed provider platform deals and can flag Stark/AKS risk before it kills a transaction.

Background

Jeanna Palmer Gunville is a healthcare transactions and regulatory partner who joined Morgan Lewis's Chicago office in July 2025 after several years as a shareholder at Polsinelli. She advises hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, post-acute care providers, and private equity-backed healthcare businesses on M&A, joint ventures, clinical integration, and regulatory compliance (Stark/Anti-Kickback). She holds a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2007) and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame (2003), and previously clerked in the Illinois Attorney General's Health Care Bureau.

Notable deals

  • 2025
    Joined Morgan Lewis as healthcare transactions and regulatory partner in Chicago, lateraling from Polsinelli
  • 2024
    Featured speaker on AHLA podcast discussing legal/value considerations for healthcare service line carveouts
  • 2022
    Co-authored National Law Review article on CMS value-based payment and behavioral health integration policy
  • 2021
    Lead author, National Law Review piece outlining 5 emerging trends in value-based care

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Partner, Healthcare Transactions & Regulatory group, Morgan Lewis (Chicago) since July 2025; previously shareholder at Polsinelli.
  • J.D. Loyola Chicago (2007); early career as law clerk in the Illinois AG's Health Care Bureau — gives her a regulator's-eye view of enforcement priorities.
  • Vice Chair, Academic Medical Centers & Teaching Hospitals Practice Group, American Health Law Association (AHLA).

Current focus

  • Structuring M&A, joint ventures, and clinical integration deals for hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, and post-acute providers.
  • Regular counsel to PE-backed healthcare platforms and vendors, including physician practice management roll-ups.
  • Active thought leadership on value-based care, service line carveouts, and ACO/CIN governance.

What she cares about

  • Building compliant deal structures (Anti-Kickback/Stark) into the transaction from day one rather than retrofitting compliance post-close.
  • Nonprofit-to-PE transition dynamics — community benefit obligations, charitable trust/AG review, and governance carryover.
  • Service line carveouts and hospital-at-home/telehealth arrangements as emerging platform plays.

Recent moves / sensitivities

  • Fresh lateral (2025) — still building her Morgan Lewis book; may be more receptive to new deal-flow relationships but also mindful of non-compete/client-transition obligations from Polsinelli.
  • Confidential client work: her public bio lists engagement *types*, not named clients — expect her to speak in generalities about past deals absent a signed NDA.

Questions to ask

  1. Which PE-backed provider platforms has she worked with recently on add-on acquisitions, and what deal structures are they gravitating toward in the current rate environment?
  2. What state AG/charitable-trust friction points is she seeing on nonprofit health system divestitures right now?
  3. Where does she see the next wave of service-line carveout or hospital-at-home JV activity, and which health systems are actively shopping?

Outreach draft

Subject
Quick call on healthcare provider platform deals?
Hi Jeanna, Congrats on the move to Morgan Lewis — saw the Chicago healthcare transactions announcement. We're a private equity team focused on pharma services and healthcare provider platforms, and your background structuring hospital/health system JVs and PE-backed provider deals caught our eye, especially your work on compliance-forward deal structuring and service line carveouts. We'd value 20-30 minutes to get your read on current regulatory friction points in provider M&A (Stark/AKS, nonprofit conversions) and where you're seeing deal activity heat up. Happy to work around your schedule this month. Would you be open to a short call? Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

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