Lowell C. Brown
Lowell is widely recognized as one of California’s pre-eminent medical staff lawyers, with a Chambers Band 1 rating. Lowell’s long experience counseling health care providers includes practitioner credentialing, peer review, disciplinary hearings, and regulatory matters.

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In addition to his medical staff practice, Lowell is a health care operations lawyer, with nearly 40 years’ experience in the world of hospitals and medical providers. During that time he has helped his provider clients achieve success in a wide range of business, regulatory, and medico-legal matters. He counsels them on Medicare certification and termination actions, federal program integrity concerns, licensing and accreditation issues, and related policy challenges.
Client Work
Lowell is a nationally recognized and widely published authority on EMTALA — the federal law prohibiting improper emergency patient transfers by hospitals (“patient-dumping”). He also has extensive experience defending clients against actions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to terminate Medicare provider agreements, and has appeared in federal trial and appellate courts on behalf of clients challenging such actions.
Lowell’s practice also encompasses health care-related operational issues such as bioethics, medical records, and consent and confidentiality. His experience in the foregoing areas includes litigation in California and federal courts, where he has appeared on behalf of provider clients in such matters as competency hearings; petitions for authorization to perform surgery for patients lacking capacity; and opposition to motions seeking access to confidential substance abuse treatment records.
Lowell has been recognized as a “highly regarded regulatory lawyer [with a] strong reputation for his representation of nonprofits, hospitals and health systems, advising on matters such as peer review, licensing and disputes” by Chambers USA.
Previous Work
Prior to joining Arent Fox, Lowell was a partner for 16 years at a large international law firm, where he served in a number of leadership positions within the health law department.
Lowell has served as legal counsel in a number of landmark California Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions involving peer review issues. Among many others, these decisions include:
- the first California appellate court decision to construe California’s peer review statute, Business and Professions Code Section 809; a key California decision regarding Evidence Code privileges in medical staff peer review cases; and
- a precedent-setting California decision on the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies.
Professional Activities
Lowell has been an assistant adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. He is an active member of a number of health care organizations, including the California Association Medical Staff Services (CAMSS).
Among other positions, Lowell has served as chair of the Accreditation, Licensure and Certification Interest Group of the American Bar Association’s Health Law Section; as president of the California Society for Healthcare Attorneys; and in several capacities in the American Health Lawyers Association.
He formerly served as chair of the executive committee of the Health Care Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, as well as on the Institutional Review Board and Bio-Medical Ethics Committee of a major Los Angeles County general acute care hospital. Lowell also served for many years as a member of BNA’s Health Care Law Advisory Board.
Community Service
Lowell is a member of the Board of Trustees of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Venice Family Clinic and served for many years on the executive board of the Western Los Angeles County Council, Boy Scouts of America. Lowell has received the BSA’s Silver Beaver Award.
Publications, Presentations & Recognitions
In 2019, Lowell was recognized by the Daily Journal as a Top Health Care Lawyer. Lowell has received the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating, and has been continuously selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, Legal 500, and Super Lawyers. He was also rated as one of the top health care attorneys in the state of California in 2007-2009, 2012-2020, and 2022-2023 by Chambers USA.
Lowell’s presentations and articles include:
- The Institute for Medical Leadership 2025 Chief of Staff Boot Camp, Los Angeles, CA, February 28, 2025
- The New World of Employed Physicians, Foundations, Exclusive Services, and Unions, 2024 Medical Staff Leaders and the Law Conference, Costa Mesa, CA, April 12, 2024
- “Our Dangerously Overburdened Medical Staff Peer Review Hearings,” Daily Journal, July 5, 2023 Accordion Toggle
Lowell’s representative published cases include the following amicus letters and briefs:
- Fahlen v. Sutter Central Valley Hospitals, (2014) 58 Cal. 4th 655. Filed in California Supreme Court on behalf of the California Hospital Association in support of petitioner Sutter Central Valley Hospitals.
- Shaw v. Superior Court (2014) 229 Cal. App. 4th 12. Filed in California Supreme Court on behalf of the California Hospital Association in support of petitioner THC-Orange County.
- Michalski v. Scripps Mercy Hospital (2013), 221 Cal. App. 4th 1033. Counsel for Scripps Mercy Hospital. Accordion Toggle
Life Beyond the Law
Lowell spends as much of his time as possible with his wife, Sonja, and his three children. He loves intercollegiate sports and closely follows the fortunes of his beloved University of Utah Utes. He’s always happy when reading one of the works of Charles Dickens or watching the Boston Red Sox play.
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Practices
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Education
University of Utah School of Law, JD, Topics Editor, Utah Law Review, 1982University of Utah, BA, magna cum laude, Student body president, 1979
Awards
Chambers USA: Lowell is a “highly regarded regulatory lawyer [with a] strong reputation for his representation of nonprofits, hospitals and health systems, advising on matters such as peer review, licensing and disputes. He is clearly an expert in medical staffing matters.”