Colin M. McGrath

“Health care clients deserve a litigator who understands their world-the regulatory framework, the clinical context, and what is actually at stake. That understanding shapes everything I do.” —Colin M. McGrath

When health care providers and businesses face litigation that demands both courtroom skill and a command of California’s complex legal landscape, they turn to attorney Colin McGrath.

Colin’s practice focuses on all aspects of civil and commercial litigation—and, particularly, health care litigation—in federal and state courts.

For health care providers, Colin handles the full spectrum of disputes that define the industry’s most challenging litigation: False Claims Act suits under both federal and California law, medical staff and peer review matters, and actions involving the Unruh Civil Rights Act, unfair competition, antitrust, ERISA, and California’s anti-SLAPP statute. He also represents clients in real estate contract disputes and business torts.

Beyond health care, Colin represents clients in the commercial and banking industries across a wide range of disputes—from class actions and government enforcement actions to internal investigations, real estate litigation, and intellectual property matters. Clients facing complex disputes across multiple fronts have a single, experienced advocate.

Before joining Epstein Becker Green, Colin was a litigation partner at a national firm and previously served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Kim McLane Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit—experience that sharpened his appellate perspective and informs his approach to building litigation strategy from the ground up. He was a member of the inaugural class at U.C. Irvine School of Law, where he served as a founding member of the Executive Board of the U.C. Irvine Law Review.

What Colin Delivers for Clients

• A Proven Record in Peer Review Litigation: Credentialing and peer review disputes carry significant legal exposure—and hospitals need a litigator who has successfully defended these matters at both the trial and appellate levels. Colin has done exactly that, including in multiple published California appellate decisions that have shaped how co:urts apply peer review immunity.
• Anti-SLAPP Motions That Stop Meritless Suits Early: California’s anti-SLAPP statute can end meritless suits against health care clients early, before discovery costs mount and reputations are damaged. Colin’s track record of anti-SLAPP dismissals at both the trial and appellate levels, including in published decisions that have shaped how the statute applies in the health care context, gives clients a meaningful procedural advantage.
• Seasoned Defense Against False Claims Act Suits: A qui tam suit under the federal or California False Claims Act can expose a health care provider to significant liability and unwanted government attention. Providers facing these actions benefit from Colin’s working knowledge of both the legal framework and the practical dynamics of these cases, and what an effective defense requires from investigation through resolution.
• Coverage Across the Full Range of Commercial Disputes: A class action, a government enforcement matter, and an intellectual property dispute all carry distinct dynamics, timelines, and risks. Clients in the banking and commercial industries who work with Colin have an advocate who understands the specific pressures a given dispute creates and the most effective way to respond.

Medical Staff and Peer Review

• Dignity Health v. Mounts, 105 Cal.App.5th 113 (2024) (affirming the dismissal of the physician’s cross-complaint against the client hospital alleging retaliatory peer review under the anti-SLAPP statute).
• Wisner v. Dignity Health, 85 Cal. App. 5th 35 (2022) (a first-impression decision affirming the dismissal under the anti-SLAPP statute of a physician’s damages complaint against the client hospital alleging that the hospital had maliciously filed a false report to the federal government disclosing that the physician resigned his medical staff membership and privileges while under investigation; holding the report was both a mandated and a protected communication and the hospital was immune from liability under the federal peer review statute).
• Dignity Health v. Mounts, 2022 WL 538110 (Cal. App. 2022) (reversing the denial of the client hospital’s anti-SLAPP motion in an action alleging retaliatory peer review of a physician).
• Bichai v. Dignity Health, 61 Cal. App. 5th 869 (2021) (secured a complete dismissal of action by physician against a hospital following the medical staff’s recommended denial of the physician’s application for privileges because the hospital itself, a separate legal entity from the medical staff, had not taken adverse action on the physician’s application).
• Wisner v. Dignity Health (San Joaquin Cty. Sup. Ct.) (2021) (successfully represented Dignity Health in two lawsuits, persuading the court to grant an anti-SLAPP motion and a complete dismissal of the action).
• East Bay Cardiovascular and Thoracic Associates, Inc. v. Stanford Health Care-Valley Care, RG21101593 (Alameda County Sup. Ct.) (secured a denial of writ of mandate in an action challenging a client hospital’s quasi-legislative decision to change the exclusive provider of cardiothoracic surgical services).
• Cary Shakespeare, M.D. et al v. Adventist Health System/West (Placer Cty. Sup. Ct.) (2018) (secured a complete defense verdict for hospital system following trial of physician whistleblower claims).
• Ryan Kime, M.D. v. Adventist Health Clearlake Hospital et al., 254 F.Supp.3d 1071 (N.D. Cal.) (2017) (obtained dismissal with prejudice of EMTALA claims against a hospital).

ERISA Litigation

• Rollins v. Dignity Health, 137 S. Ct. 1652 (2017) (unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding church plan exemption from ERISA for faith-based hospitals’ pension plan).

Commercial and Other Litigation

• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Liang (C.D. Cal) (2019) (favorably resolved an action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court against a certified public accountant).

Education

• University of California, Irvine School of Law (J.D., 2012)
  • Founding Member, Executive Board, U.C. Irvine Law Review
• University of California, Irvine (M.A., 2008)
• Creighton University (B.A., cum laude, 2005)

Professional & Community Involvement

• California Society for Healthcare Attorneys