FAQs

1. What kinds of clients do you typically represent?


2. Can you work with my attorney who knows nothing about CAM?


3. What will it cost to hire your firm?


4. Do you accept credit cards?


5. Do you offer a payment plan?


6. Where are your attorneys licensed?


7. What else do your attorneys do?


8. How did your attorneys become involved in the CAM law field?


9. Have you prepared informed consent forms for specific therapies?


10. Do you provide physician or other references?


11. How can I contact your offices by email?


12. Can you recommend liability insurance for CAM?


13. Can you recommend an attorney in my state?


14. Will you answer some general questions about the industry?


15. How soon can I expect to hear back from you?

We have represented or currently represent:

• An unlicensed business executive seeking advice regarding a proposed business that would aim to promote health using FDA-regulated medical devices and wellness machines.

• A doctor of osteopathy seeking an informed consent and advice on an integrative medicine practice offering lifestyle and nutritional counseling, traditional Chinese medicine, off-label drug recommendations, chelation therapy, and vitamin infusions.

• An unlicensed healing arts practitioner seeking advice to build a practice focusing on various emerging diagnostic devices and therapeutic methods.

• A medical doctor, licensed in two states, seeking to create an independent, wellness consulting service, focusing on meditation, Reiki, nutritional and lifestyle changes, and other complementary therapies, and reduce her time practicing hospital-based conventional care.

• A major law firm, representing a physician seeking an expert legal and ethical report in a medical board disciplinary investigation involving emerging therapies (for chronic conditions) at the borderland of conventional and complementary/integrative care.

• A licensed clinical psychologist responding to a disciplinary investigation by the state board of psychologists involving a patient complaint for alleged misconduct, where the treatment included use of energy therapies.

• An osteopathic physician seeking advice regarding an adjunctive, consultative practice specializing in helping patients create health portfolios and uncover CAM therapeutic options.

• A medical doctor with an innovative branding and Internet marketing strategy for dietary supplements seeking to structure the business model so as to limit potential liability and help ensure compliance with applicable food and drug labeling requirements.

• A national program in energy healing seeking liability risk management advice and informed consent documents for its directors and officers who are also teaching in the program.

• A physician seeking advice and review of contracts concerning possible affiliation with a medical spa.

• A physician under investigation by a state medical board concerning clinical practices focusing solely on CAM (complementary and alternative medicine).

• A practitioner of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Neuro-linguistic Programming (NFT), and other mind-body modalities seeking to open a practice under protection under California law governing non-licensed CAM providers.

• Expert advice to a law firm representing an MD who lost licensure for focusing on holistic care and who desires to reinstate licensure focusing only on CAM-related services.

• Expert advice and report to a law firm representing an MD under investigation by a state medical board concerning clinical practices integrating CAM (complementary and alternative medical) therapies for relief of chronic conditions.

• A large, multi-state law firm representing two different physicians under investigation by their state medical board for offering patients complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies and/or emerging therapies for chronic conditions. [We provided a legal or ethics opinion regarding compliance with the state's alternative medicine statute. Both medical board investigations were subsequently dismissed.]

• A physician represented by two large firms in another state medical board investigation related to offering patients complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies and/or emerging therapies for chronic or debilitating conditions. We served as expert counsel regarding the CAM/disciplinary issues.

• An East Coast-based MD (psychiatrist) interested in an informed consent form to practice telemedicine involving complementary therapies.

• A West Coast-based MD opening an integrative clinical care center with practitioners from other conventional and complementary care disciplines.

• The inventor of a medical device (patent pending) drafting a 513(g) letter seeking FDA classification of the product as a Class I medical device.

• A nurse practitioner desiring to guide patients concerning therapeutic use of herbal medicine.

• An attorney representing a provider of homeopathic and naturopathic remedies facing FDA enforcement and criminal investigation.

• Consultation to an international law firm through preparation of an expert report focusing on complementary, alternative and integrative medicine regulatory issues in a medical board disciplinary action involving a physician who integrates CAM therapies in clinical care within a specialized medical clinic.

• One of the largest integrative clinical care facilities implementing comprehensive clinical care programs, redesigning billing and coding strategies, and planning strategic expansion into other geographic markets.

• An executive funding, designing, and planning a large, privately-run, integrative clinical care facility.

• An attorney representing the estate of an individual fatally injured through allegedly negligent care in a wellness clinic.

• One of the premier manufacturers of Asian herbal products with sales to licensed acupuncturists and practitioners of traditional oriental medicine.

• A multi-site, massage therapy educational institution initiating a local, regional, and national strategy to develop government relations, legislation, and policy within the industry.

• A physician designing and implementing a Web-based, e-commerce site for information about herbal care and dietary supplements within his or her field of specialty.

• A chiropractor negotiating an employment contract with a major East Coast hospital.

• A California-based, health maintenance organization (HMO) in contractual matters and proposed expansion to the Southwest.

• A patient seeking to negotiate compensation in a dental malpractice case.

• An international trading company, selling and distributing police evidence collection vehicles and forensic equipment to the China market.

• A dentist defending against disciplinary charges by a professional board for inclusion of integrative and energy medicine.

• A spa consulting firm creating business models for hospitals interested in building medical spas in collaboration with a larger health care organization's administrative structure.

• An eye surgeon running a LASIK vision center negotiating sale of intellectual property rights and royalties for development and commercialization of eye-care products.

2. Can you work with my corporate attorney, who knows nothing about CAM?
Definitely.  We can either take the role of primary counsel, coordinating with your existing attorney, or serve as an expert to assist your primary attorney, depending on the situation and your preferences.  For example, some clients have a law firm that is handling their disciplinary proceeding before a state medical board, but would like us to furnish an expert opinion for an upcoming proceeding.  Other clients are facing disciplinary issues at the more preliminary, investigative phase and would like assistance responding in writing to an initial Board inquiry.  Still others are in an entrepreneurial, planning phase, trying to open or expand an existing practice involving CAM therapies. In any case, we can work flexibly, with your needs and instructions in mind. If you do require coordinating with an existing attorney, it would be a good idea to contact your attorney and let him or her know your plans, so that you can confer about the most effective way you might utilize our services.

3. What will it cost to hire your firm?
The answer depends on the complexity of the project.  Each client situation is different.

Although we have experience estimating what it will likely take to address a given situation, and can share that preliminary estimate with you, we cannot guarantee the total fee. One reason is that the scope of the representation can change in either direction as we begin working together, and refine the issues we might find it critical to address. For example, we might find that we quickly accomplish a very discrete analysis in a limited amount of time. That is often the case. On the other hand, the consultation may start out with a given set of facts but in our conversation, additional circumstances might emerge that complicate the picture, and require additional research and careful advice.

Since cost of services is always of concern, here is an illustration of how sometimes situations are more complicated than they might initially appear. Suppose a nurse engages our firm, letting us know that she wishes to join a medical spa in a state where medical spas are flourishing. But during the initial consultation, it turns out that the services she is asked to perform require medical supervision, and that the medical director has not implemented appropriate policies and procedures. The nurse also suggests that the MD may be allowing other practitioners to offer services outside their legally authorized scope of practice, raising concerns of shared liability. Further, the spa is selling dietary supplements, raising potential conflicts of interest and anti-kickback concerns; and the ownership structure triggers corporate practice of medicine issues in that state. Next, we learn that the nursing board has issued a set of criteria for practices involving complementary therapies although the definitions are ambiguous, while the medical board has somewhat contradictory guidance regarding medical spa therapies, and neither is willing to give concrete advice to the nurse. A bit later our client informs us that the real reason she called was because one of the spa's clients had recently been treated with a contaminated product, and although the injuries were minor and the negligence clearly lay with the manufacturer, a state agency initiated investigation of the spa.

Obviously these are the kinds of facts can extend the desired length of the consultation past an initial estimate, and it would be important to communicate realistically about the work that needs to be undertaken to render professional advice. There is no question that a conscious professional in any discipline has to remain sensitive to client concerns about cost; at the same time, it is inappropriate to operate under expectations of a 'vending machine' approach to valuable professional services. Here is a nice quote from a book on day trading: "The business rule of thumb for many fly-by-nights seems to be, 'where there is no value, compete strictly on price.' If the very best have truly paid the price for their success, they will not cheapen their achievements with a bargain basement offer."

Good communication overall is essential to working together. The attorney-client relationship is very special and takes a great deal of mutual trust. As part of enhancing the sense of safety that builds trust, contractually, the client has the right to seek to terminate legal services at any time. Ideally, this arrangement should allow a good measure of control over future expenditure of attorney time.

As to the fee itself, we do not publish our hourly on the Web, but believe our rates are modest in view of our expertise, and, to make that more concrete, are generally far less than you will find charged by partners in law firms in most major U.S. cities.  Also, our staffing is lean so we work as efficiently as possible.

In order to give us sufficient time in representing you to adequately research the law and render competent advice, and in a manner consistent with applicable ethical requirements of attorneys, we follow the practice of many law firms in requiring a minimum advance deposit from all clients.  That minimum is $2,000 (the amount may be higher depending on the projected work required for a given client).  This minimum is based on our experience representing clients over the years. As explained in detail in the legal services agreement that you will receive if we decide to work together, advanced payments are maintained in a state-regulated bank account which are subject to certain ethical rules, including that accrued interest is paid directly to the State Bar association. Further, an advance deposit is not a minimum fee; it is simply an advance, guaranteeing that payment for a certain chunk of work is readily available. Many law firms, particularly large firms, require significantly higher advance deposits before beginning work. From our perspective overall, the advance provides integrity to our work together.

4. Do you accept credit cards?
No, not for legal services. Ethical rules promulgated by State Bar associations prohibit merchant accounts for legal services.

5. Do you offer a payment plan?
We offer legal services, but we are not in the business of providing credit. If you are not yet prepared to engage legal services, please feel free to call us again whenever you are ready.

6. Where are your attorneys licensed?
Michael H. Cohen Esq. is an active member of the Bar in California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C.  He also maintains a part-time affiliation with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England of Wales (currently non-practicing). He has taught both U.S. and U.K. / Commonwealth Caribbean law.  Alan Dumoff, Esq. is an active member of the Bar in Maryland and Washington, D.C.  We are able to research the law in various states, and our clients come from all across the United States, and from abroad.  Relatively few U.S. lawyers have Bar memberships in more than one, or at the most two states, although large firms have multi-jurisdictional practices, and disclose on their letterhead where their attorneys are members of the Bar.  

7. What else do your attorneys do?
We run the Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen and the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog. We are also involved in cutting-edge research in health law and policy focusing on integrative and energy medicine, and in speaking all over the country about legal issues in complementary and integrative medicine.  Our books and articles offer the latest thinking on frontier topics. We offer a Continuing Education course on Ethics for Acupuncture and Traditional Oriental Medicine. 

8. How did your attorneys become involved in the CAM law field?
For a more complete answer, you will probably want to review some of Michael H. Cohen's books, including Future Medicine and A Friend of all Faiths.  To make a long story short, Michael always had an interest in religion and spirituality, even as a law student at the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, and while functioning as a Wall Street lawyer. During a period of study at the Iowa Writers' Workshop (following completion of the JD-MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley and a judicial clerkship in New York), he began opening to mind-body techniques as a way to enhance creativity for fiction-writing.  This led, among other things, to an encounter with the Monk, yoga, meditation, followed by Gurdjieff work, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, Reiki, and other tools and paths, including study with Rabbi Joseph Gelberman at the New Seminary (and subsequent ordination as an interfaith minister), and completion of the four-year (part-time) program at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. In 2000, Michael received his credential as an RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher; see later photo from Mysore, India), and that same year, joined the full-time faculty of Harvard Medical School in a unit dedicated to research and education of what had by then become known as "complementary and integrative medical therapies."  The full-time 'Harvard years' offered precious opportunities for research and scholarly attention to legal and ethical issues in integrative medicine, as well as emerging hospital policy in the complementary medicine field.  The  Law Offices had opened in 1999 but became especially active following the shift to part-time, clinical status at HMS in 2005. Since then, Michael H. Cohen has continued to teach an annual course on Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Health Law & Policy at Harvard School of Public Health, focusing on contemporary legal, regulatory, ethical, and policy issues pertaining to integrative medicine.

Alan Dumoff is a JD-MSW who has spent many years developing expertise at the interface of mental health care, law, and mind-body/CAM modalities. Through his extensive practice experience, he is familiar with a myriad of therapies, and legal risks and 'gray zones' associated with their use, as well as legal risk management.  By virtue of their training and/or hands-on familiarity with mind-body and CAM therapies, both Alan Dumoff and Michael H. Cohen endeavor to remain sensitive to the complex psychological and energetic dynamics underlying clients' legal concerns, while offering their expertise as experienced legal counsel.

9. Have you prepared consent forms for MD's or other providers dealing with therapy XYZ (a therapy either considered CAM, or emerging within the profession (e.g., an anti-aging therapy or innovative treatment for pain, chronic fatigue, or another condition not easily treated by conventional care))?
We have drafted a variety of consent forms for physicians, allied health professionals, and CAM providers.  Legal rules governing informed consent vary by state and by profession.  Disclosures specific to various treatment modalities should incorporate information about relevant clinical risks and benefits. The key requirement in informed consent is materiality. Informed consent should informed consent should include adequate information about the risks and benefits of all treatment options Clinician-clients and their attorneys need to work together to ensure that the information provided is legally adequate.

10. Do you provide physician or other references?
We have begun to provide a list of selected recent clients on on our website. These clients gave permission to be listed; presumably, that implies they had a positive experience.  Many other clients (for example, sometimes physicians who have successfully come through a medical board disciplinary hearing) understandably wish their identities to be kept confidential. In addition, we do not wish to burden our existing clients' privacy and time with demands to help build our business by offering guidance to prospective others.

We did, at one point, collect client testimonials regarding our work, but have concluded that we prefer to spend our time delivering services to clients.  Testimonials can be self-serving, and in any event, are subject to important qualifications, set forth in our standard disclaimer language. In fact, this is a good place to restate the part of the disclaimer that notes, "any review or other matter that could be regarded as a testimonial or endorsement does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of an individual's legal matter."

Those desiring additional information regarding our work can review the extensive information already available on the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog.  The blog contains extensive information about topics such as licensure, malpractice, and disciplinary issues facing physicians, allied health providers (such as nurses and psychologists), and CAM professionals such as chiropractors and massage therapists (all of whom we have represented).  The site also provides references to medical and legal literature on these topics, links to books on CAM law and policy written by Michael H. Cohen, and extensive biographical pages.  More detail, including a curriculum vitae, are also available, including links to articles (many authored during five years' experience as a lawyer with faculty status at Harvard Medical School). Information on the Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Health Law & Policy course (HPM 218) taught by Michael H. Cohen at Harvard School of Public Health is also available on the site. Another useful resource discussed and linked to on the blog is the Institute of Medicine Report on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use by the American Public, a report to which Michael H. Cohen served as the Consultant.

11. How can I contact your offices by email?
We like to focus our time directly responding to our clients’ needs.  If you wish to contact Michael H. Cohen regarding speaking or legal representation, please call the law office at 617-825-3368 and leave your telephone number and the best times to reach you to schedule an initial consultation with you to determine how next to proceed.

12. Can you recommend liability insurance for CAM?
Unfortunately, no, we cannot recommend any given carrier for professional liability insurance relating to delivery of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine services. In general, it is important to inquire of your existing carrier regarding coverage and exclusions, to review the policy carefully, and to make inquiries and receive responses in writing. Some insurance companies may offer riders for additional coverage, but the terms should be drafted and carefully reviewed for compliance with local law and for conformity with your practice.

13. Can you recommend an attorney in my state?
Again, we do make attorney referrals from time to time, but we know of very few attorneys in the U.S. who are specializing in this area. Most health care law attorneys are not familiar with legal rules pertinent to CAM or integrative medicine. Please see responses to FAQs 2 and 6.

14. Will you answer some general questions about the industry?
We do not respond to questions outside of an attorney-client relationship, unless the call involves a media inquiry, or philanthropic interest in supporting our nonprofit Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine. We are sometimes inundated with telephone calls. We appreciate the interest, but no longer automatically return every call. One reason, beyond trying to concentrate our efforts, is that we offer so many free resources and general updates on the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog. Our law firm website also has a series of podcasts that include information about the typical structure of a consultation, what typically goes in an informed consent, and other topics. A great deal of energy goes into keeping our work and these websites as current, enlivening, and informative as possible. We trust you will understand our priorities.

15. If I am interested in legal services, how soon can I expect to hear back from you?
Every client is a priority client.  We usually respond to voicemail inquires regarding legal services within 24 hours of receipt. When you call, please do leave a landline number, and if possible, a telephone number where you can be reached in the evening hours as well. In the meanwhile, good luck in your business, and in all your endeavors! We look forward to hearing from you.