Michael A. Epstein elected chair of Northwell Health Board of Trustees


The Northwell Health Board of Trustees on Wednesday elected Michael A. Epstein of Sands Point, Long Island, as its new chair. He succeeds Mark L. Claster, who served for five years as chair of the 31-member board.

Mr. Epstein is a senior partner at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, in Manhattan and has served as a Northwell trustee for 14 years. He was an associate trustee before that, beginning in December 2002. In addition, he has been a board member of Northwell’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research since 2002. Mr. Epstein, a renowned intellectual property expert and leading attorney in the field, is active in community, philanthropic and public service matters.

 

“Michael Epstein has been a good friend and strong supporter of the health system for 17 years,” said Michael J. Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health. “He is a community-minded, mission-driven individual who has been very active with numerous other philanthropic endeavors. We all look forward to working with him.”

 

Mr. Epstein also serves on boards of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services and the Jonas Salk Foundation. He is a past member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Arts & Sciences at Lehigh University as well as advisory panels to Congress and the National Academy of Sciences’ National Academy of Medicine on intellectual property matters.

 

            A sought-after public speaker who has published more than 60 articles on intellectual property law, Mr. Epstein is the author of Epstein on Intellectual Property andModern Intellectual Property, a co-author of Online – Internet Law, International Intellectual Property, and a co-editor of Drafting License Agreements, The Corporate Counsellor’s Deskbook, The Departing Employee, Doing Business in Eastern Europe, Biotechnology Law, The Trademark Law Revision Act, Joint Ventures and Other Cooperative Business Arrangements, and Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants and Other Safeguards.

 

“I am deeply honored to be elected chair of Northwell,” Mr. Epstein said. “I look forward to working with Michael Dowling, his management team and my colleagues on the board as we continue to achieve new milestones as one of the country’s premier health care organizations.”

 

Mr. Epstein chairs his firm’s Technology and Intellectual Property Transactions Practice Group. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section and Section on Business Law as well as the New York State Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section.

 

In appreciation of Mr. Claster’s chairmanship and 25 years of service on the Northwell Board of Trustees, the health system on Wednesday announced the creation of the Mark L. Claster Annual Lecture in Neurosurgical Leadership, which will be held annually at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

 

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About Northwell Health
Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, about 750 outpatient facilities and more than 13,600 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 69,000 employees – 16,000-plus nurses and 4,000 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu