Overview
Leslie D. Parker concentrates her practice in health care regulatory law and commercial litigation. She represents hospitals and health systems, skilled nursing facilities, physician groups, health plans, and other health care businesses and professionals in matters before Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and federal regulatory agencies, and she tries and resolves high-stakes business disputes in state and federal court across Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Leslie’s health care practice includes the regulatory approvals a transaction requires, licensing and enforcement proceedings, and ongoing compliance counseling. She has guided health systems through Hospital Conversions Act reviews before the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General, secured Certificate of Need and Change in Effective Control approvals, and serves as ongoing compliance counsel to health systems operating under the multi-year conditions regulators attach to approved transactions.
Leslie also defends skilled nursing facilities in survey, plan of correction, and civil monetary penalty proceedings, and litigates Medicare appeals, provider enrollment disputes, and Medicaid audits and program integrity investigations. She also defends physicians and other licensed professionals in complaint and disciplinary proceedings before Rhode Island and Massachusetts licensing boards. Leslie also counsels health care organizations on day-to-day regulatory compliance questions, such as whether a new service line requires licensure, how to respond to a subpoena for patient records, or where clinicians must be licensed when a practice adds telehealth.
Leslie is also an accomplished trial and appellate lawyer. She has obtained defense verdicts, summary judgment, dismissals, and favorable appellate decisions in complex contract and commercial disputes, business torts, trade secret and unfair competition claims, employment discrimination defense, and administrative appeals in courts throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Her practice spans a broad array of clients, including financial institutions, manufacturers, consumer product companies, and healthcare organizations, across a range of disputes. That courtroom experience shapes how she advises on regulatory matters: she counsels clients with an eye toward the record that would be built if the dispute were later litigated.
Leslie also co-chairs the firm’s Cannabis Practice Group, advising licensed cannabis operators on licensing, regulatory compliance, and litigation.
Experience
- Leslie obtained complete dismissal of a former employee’s complaint for wrongful termination, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, and fraud based on ERISA preemption on behalf of a large financial institution. Leslie successfully defended that decision in the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the judgment. Orabona v. Santander Bank, N.A., 141 F. 4th 1 (1st Cir. 2025).
- Leslie has guided multiple clients through Hospital Conversion Act reviews. Significantly, she successfully represented the Transacting Parties in the Hospital Conversions Act review of a national health system’s change in ownership before the Rhode Island Department of Health and Rhode Island Office of Attorney General.
- Leslie obtained a complete defense verdict following a two week jury trial in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island for a large financial institution in a lawsuit filed by a former employee alleging hostile work environment, quid pro quo harassment, and retaliation under both state and federal law.
- Leslie obtained summary judgment in favor of an international toy manufacturer on misappropriation of trade secret, breach of contract, and fraud claims and successfully defended the decision on appeal in the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Wild Horse Concepts, LLC v. Hasbro, Inc., 286 A.3d 848 (R.I. 2023)
- Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Leslie advised healthcare facilities and providers, as well as some of the largest Rhode Island employers, regarding COVID-19 regulatory and vaccine requirements.
- Leslie defended a major health care insurer in a lawsuit alleging tort claims and an antitrust conspiracy to prevent an out-of-state hospital system from entering Rhode Island.
- Leslie has obtained numerous successful results on behalf of nursing facilities appealing civil monetary penalties in both the informal dispute resolution process and before Administrative Law Judges.
- Leslie obtained a temporary restraining order against the Rhode Island Department of Health on behalf of a practice offering IV therapy relating to licensure of the practice.
- Leslie regularly provides regulatory guidance to aesthetics providers, including, for example, advice related to scope of services and defense of complaints issued by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
- Leslie won summary judgment for an international flooring manufacturer on claims by a distributor on unfair trade practices and tortious interference, among other claims, and also prevailed on summary judgment on the manufacturer’s counterclaims. (Named one of the Top 100 Most Important Decisions of 2017 by Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly).
- Leslie has successfully defended health care providers in numerous regulatory and licensing proceedings.
Case Studies
Credentials
- Boston College Law School (J.D., 2010)
- University of Michigan (B.A., 2007)
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
- U.S. District Court, District of Rhode Island
- U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts
- U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals
- Legal 500, US Elite: New England, 2026, Commercial Disputes.
- Recognized by Chambers USA America’s Leading Business Lawyers in the area of Litigation: General Commercial.
- Selected by her peers for inclusion in the 2024 – 2027 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® in the field of Health Care Law.
- Best Lawyers’ 2026 Lawyer of the Year, Administrative/Regulatory , Providence.
- 40 Under Forty, Providence Business News, 2022.
- Professional Excellence in the Law, Health Care, Rhode Island Monthly 2019 – 2026.
- Named Rhode Island Rising Star 2014 – 2020 and a Rhode Island Super Lawyer 2025 – 2026, by the publishers of Super Lawyers.
- USLAW NETWORK’s Virtual Retreat “Short Takes” Video, Cannabis Law for 2021 and beyond.
- Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Law and Social Justice (formerly known as the Boston College Third World Law Journal).
- “Putting Poverty in Museums: Strategies to Create the For-Profit Social Business,” 29 Boston College Third World Law Journal 357 (2009).
- Member, American Health Lawyers Association.
- Treasurer, Rhode Island Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
- Former Secretary, Rhode Island Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
- Former Young Lawyers Committee Chair, Rhode Island Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
- Fellow, Rhode Island Bar Foundation.
- Member, Rhode Island Bar Foundation.
- Member, Governor’s Insurance Council.
- Member, Board of Governors, Rhode Island Hospital Foundation.
- Leadership Rhode Island , Pi II Class (2020).
- Former Member, Generation Citizen New England Board.
- Chair, Rhode Island Chapter of the Boston College Law School Alumni Association.
- Former Board Member and Secretary, Women’s Center of Rhode Island.
- Former Committee Member, Crossroads Committee on Domestic Violence.
