Margaret E. Somerset

Health care professionals dedicate their lives to helping others. But who helps them when they need legal advice?

Margaret has been a dedicated advocate for the health care industry for her entire career. For more than two decades, she has built a litigation practice defending numerous claims against health care providers and small businesses. She has also represented individuals, successfully prosecuting breach of contract, personal injury, civil rights and college tenure cases.

Margaret's dedication to defending the health care industry extends from physicians' groups to paramedics, nursing homes to nurse practitioners, doctors to dentists, and hospitals to homecare agencies. Her experience in handling matters for both health care employees and providers has afforded her a unique perspective on the inner workings and increasingly complex legal ramifications of American health care. She has counseled her clients in matters such as medical malpractice, regulatory compliance (HIPAA), peer review, professional medical discipline, the mental hygiene law, credentialing, record-keeping, electronic medical records and risk management.

Margaret has been a clinical faculty member on trial-related coursework for the nurse paralegal program at the University of Rochester, and has presented seminars to both health care professionals and lawyers on a number of subjects, including medical malpractice claims; elder care issues; Public Health Law compliance and liability; risk management for physician offices, nursing homes, and hospital surgical teams; federal civil rights litigation; and the development and management of a legal practice.

She is an approved counselor for numerous major insurance companies and is co-chair of our Insurance Defense Practice Group. Margaret is formerly the managing partner of the Somerset Law Firm, LLC, and was a partner at Harris Beach and Wilcox, LLC. As a member of Underberg & Kessler's Health Care Practice Group, she furthers our firm's reputation as a premier legal practice for the health care industry, a complex area of law that is well served by her insight, experience and compassion.