David Matyas Featured in Q&A Column, as appeared in Health Care Law360

Q: What is the most challenging project you have worked on and what made it challenging?

A: We had a private equity client that needed us to investigate the potential regulatory risks of purchasing a company in the midst of a three-year, ongoing federal investigation. This matter was extremely challenging because of the time constraints we were given: We had only 72 hours to conduct our review of documents — and there were hundreds of thousands of documents produced for the government — to complete interviews with numerous attorneys and company individuals who were familiar with and worked on the issues, and then to provide the client with a meaningful hypothesis of what the potential exposure might be. We had to make sure that, within this short timeframe, our team was able to connect the dots between what was reviewed on paper and what was learned in interviews. The task was further complicated by the fact that although the investigation had focused during the previous 12 months on activities in one jurisdiction, the investigation originally examined allegations on a national level. I likened it to trying to put a dollar value on a locked safety deposit box that could be empty or filled with millions worth of jewelry, and having limited information on who had access to the box over the last several years.