The Hodes Law Firm PLLC

JOEL HODES, PRINCIPAL

Joel Hodes, sole Principal of The Hodes Law Firm PLLC, was a founding partner in 1975 of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP,  now among the largest law firms in Upstate New York. As founding partner and, later, Senior Counsel to the Whiteman firm, Mr Hodes chaired its Health Care Practice Group from inception until Mr. Hodes's retirement from the firm in 2018. He is presently continuing his health law practice on the more manageable scale afforded by a single-specialty firm of which he is the sole principal. 

Over his long career in health care law, Mr. Hodes has represented (among other clients) hospitals and regional health systems; subacute, rehabilitation and long-term care facilities; MSSPs, ACOs and other provider networks, both in formation and in operation; FQHCs, ambulatory care, imaging and other freestanding diagnostic and treatment centers; ESRD, TBI and other specialty care providers; corporate and community-based certified and licensed home care and home infusion service providers; single- and multi-specialty physician practices; and HMOs and health insurers, to all of which he has provided counsel regarding corporate, compliance, operational, financial, licensure, network development and other business and regulatory issues. Mr. Hodes has also acted as regulatory and transaction counsel and strategic business advisor to lenders, investment advisors and managers, private equity firms, REITs and others involved in the financing, acquisition, divestiture and restructuring of health care businesses.

Mr. Hodes was awarded his Bachelor of Science degree in industrial and labor relations by Cornell University (1968) and his Juris Doctor by Columbia Law School (1971), where he was recognized as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Prior to beginning his 43-year tenure at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, Mr. Hodes was associated with a prominent New York City law firm until his appointment by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller as Assistant Director of Employee Relations of the State of New York. Mr. Hodes held that position until he joined in the formation of the Whiteman firm in 1975. 

Mr. Hodes was admitted to the New York Bar in 1972 and is a member of the Bars of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (1974), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1974) and the Supreme Court of the United States (1982). He has also appeared pro hac vice for clients involved in litigation in the federal and state courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the states of Vermont, Georgia and Mississippi.

Mr. Hodes’ dedication to his profession is demonstrated by the leadership positions he has held in bar and professional associations and their working Sections and committees. Mr. Hodes is a Life Member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; a member of the New York State Bar Association and its Health Law Section's Committees on Health Care Systems Design, E-Health and Information Systems and Health Care Providers and its Labor Law Section's Executive Committee; the American Bar Association and its Health Law Section; the Federal Bar Council (of which he served as a Trustee from 1994 to 1998); and the American Academy of Hospital Attorneys, the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics, the American Health Lawyers Association and the Medical Group Management Association.

Mr. Hodes has been afforded the privilege of sharing his professional knowledge and wide experience by his appointment to the Adjunct Faculty of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations; by his frequent lectures on health care law and practice to physicians, health care administrators and health care lawyers; by his participation in health care colliquia sponsored by bar associations and health care industry groups; and by inclusion of articles of interest to health care professionals and attorneys in law reviews and other legal and health care industry publications. 

Commissioned in 1968 in the U.S. Air Force Medical Service Corps, Mr. Hodes was responsible for the training and deployment of the 164 physicians, nurses and other clinical, administrative and support personnel of one of the USAF’s three domestic casualty staging units. Unit personnel were tasked with providing acute medical and staging services to Vietnam War battle casualties and Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force personnel and dependents who required stateside hospitalization, recuperation and rehabilitation. Mr. Hodes was honorably discharged from the Air Force as a reserve First Lieutenant in 1974. 

Mr. Hodes has also proudly served his country and community by his service to international, national and regional educational, civic, arts and cultural organizations. Among others, he served for ten years as a member and Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Sage Colleges in Troy, New York; as a Trustee and President of Capital Repertory Theatre; as a Trustee and President of Historic Albany Foundation; as a member of the Advisory Board of Digital Democracy, a global partnership employing new technologies to foster open communication among citizens of (and refugees from) repressive regimes; and as Grand Sénéchal of the Sous-Commanderie d’Albany-Capital Region and member of the Grand Conseil of the Commanderie d’Amérique of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, an international cultural and educational organization dedicated to the celebration of Burgundy and its wines.