Healthcare Transactions Recruiters

Hospital and health-system combinations. Kaufman Hall’s 15 January 2026 release counted 46 announced hospital and health-system transactions in 2025, a decrease from 2024. Transacted revenue was $18.5 billion, which Kaufman Hall described as the lowest amount since it began tracking the series, after a very quiet first half. The fourth quarter had 17 announced transactions, including four mega mergers, defined as deals in which the smaller party’s annual revenue exceeded $1 billion. Of the year’s $18.5 billion, $9.8 billion was recorded in that quarter. The year-end review counts five mega mergers for the full year. The same review states that the year-end total excludes transactions announced and then canceled during 2025.

Financial distress was the other 2025 fact. Kaufman Hall reported that 43.5 percent of 2025 announced transactions involved a financially distressed party, which it called a record high, up from 30.6 percent in 2024. The review counts 20 financially distressed sellers. The average annual revenue of the smaller party in those distressed deals was $345 million, below the prior year’s $401 million and still large enough that distress was not confined to the smallest community hospitals. The share of smaller parties with a credit rating of A- or higher fell from 12.3 percent in 2023, to 2.8 percent in 2024, to 2.2 percent in 2025. For-profit organizations were the seller in 11 of the 46 announcements and the acquirer in one.

The first quarter of 2026 changed the mix. Kaufman Hall’s 9 April 2026 release counted 22 announced transactions, which it called the highest first-quarter level since 2020, and $14.5 billion of transacted revenue. Three were mega mergers. Four of the 22, 18 percent, involved a financially distressed seller. Fifteen of the 22, 68 percent, were divestitures. The Q1 2026 activity report published with that release puts average smaller-party annual revenue at $657 million and the 2025 divestiture share at 45.6 percent. The same report records 15 announcements in the third quarter of 2025 and 17 in the fourth, and six for-profit acquirers in the first quarter of 2026, against one for-profit acquirer in all of 2025. A shortlist built only for distressed nonprofit mergers is the wrong list for a 2026 divestiture or a for-profit buyer.

Private equity, and the statutes around the platform. Bain & Company’s 8 January 2026 press release reported an estimated $191 billion of global healthcare private-equity deal value in 2025, above the prior peak in 2021, and 445 announced buyouts, the second-highest annual total on its record. The accompanying analysis treats 2025 as actual data through 30 November 2025, annualized for the rest of the year, and it excludes add-on deals below $250 million. On that basis, North America had 26 transactions above $1 billion through November 2025, compared with 14 in the full year 2024, and more than 70 percent of those 26 were sponsor-to-sponsor sales. Physician groups were 23 percent of global provider transactions in the 2025 estimate, down from 28 percent in 2021. Bain still describes them as a major share of existing private-equity portfolios.

The structure of those platforms is now a statute question in two states that produce a large share of the work. Governor Newsom approved California Senate Bill 351 on 6 October 2025. The chaptered bill adds Division 1.7 to the Health and Safety Code and restricts a private-equity group or hedge fund involved with a physician or dental practice from interfering with professional judgment and from controlling specified clinical and administrative decisions, including coding and billing. Benesch, writing on 14 October 2025, states that the statute is effective 1 January 2026. Oregon Senate Bill 951, which Wilson Sonsini dates to enactment on 9 June 2025, declares an emergency and takes effect on passage. Section 1 of the enrolled act first applies on 1 January 2026 to management services organizations and professional medical entities organized on or after the effective date, and on 1 January 2029 to those that existed before. A lawyer who can paper a stock purchase and has not lived an MSO-PC arrangement under those dates is a different profile from the one the platform is buying.

Life-sciences acquisitions. EY’s 12 January 2026 release on the Firepower report said global life-sciences M&A totaled $240 billion in 2025, an 81 percent increase from $130 billion in 2024. Overall deal volume fell 12 percent, with biopharma volume down 19 percent and MedTech volume up 6 percent. Average deal size reached $2.1 billion, a 107 percent increase on the 2024 average. The same release puts available Firepower at a record $2.1 trillion. Fewer, larger purchases mean the in-house seat is the person who can run one of those purchases, and the law-firm seat is the person who has staffed one. The hiring read on that specialism is the 2026 life-sciences hiring note. The parent map is the life sciences practice.

The filing, and the consent. The Federal Trade Commission’s 2026 Hart-Scott-Rodino thresholds take effect on 17 February 2026. The minimum size-of-transaction threshold is $133.9 million, up from $126.4 million. The adjusted $200 million threshold is $535.5 million: a deal at or above that level is reportable without a size-of-person test. On 25 August 2026 the Commission approved a final consent order in Ascension’s proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg, requiring divestiture of seven ambulatory surgery centers and prior notice of further surgery-center acquisitions in the affected metropolitan areas. The June 2026 proposed order had set that prior-notice obligation at ten years. The person who drafts the purchase agreement and the person who lives with a divestiture and a prior-notice order can sit on the same deal and still be the wrong hire for each other. Merger-control staffing, as its own niche, is on merger control and antitrust economics.

False Claims Act defense is a further seat. The Department of Justice reported on 16 January 2026 that False Claims Act settlements and judgments exceeded $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, with more than $5.7 billion related to health care. That docket hires investigations and enforcement counsel. It does not, by itself, hire the lawyer who signs the acquisition agreement. Regulatory depth of that kind is mapped under FDA regulatory. Pay comparisons that keep the lawyer seat separate from a compliance-officer band are on healthcare attorney salary 2026.

Bloomberg Law reported on 2 June 2026 that Milbank raised associate base salaries and that the scale now runs from $235,000 to $455,000, with McDermott the first firm to match. Above the Law, the same day, reported the new scale as effective 1 July 2026. That is the lockstep base a healthcare transactions associate at a matching firm is compared with. It is not an in-house offer, and it is not partner compensation. The class-year ladder is on biglaw associate salary scale 2026. Healthcare-specific reading of the same figures, including why they are not a compliance-officer band, is on healthcare attorney salary 2026.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey executive summary, released 16 September 2025, puts US in-house Attorney median base at $148,000, Senior Attorney median base at $201,000, and Associate General Counsel median base at $245,000. The survey does not print a healthcare-transactions dollar. Using any of those medians as “the healthcare M&A number” invents a figure the summary withheld. An associate general counsel for transactions is often graded on that Associate General Counsel rung. Partner cash is a third object: draws and profits, not the associate scale. The firm-wide partner page is law firm partner salary 2026.

A general counsel total-pay figure is the wrong benchmark for a transactions counsel. Sartori & Partners’ analysis of 2026 proxy filings puts median total compensation at $4.76 million for sitting general counsel who are named executive officers at 236 of the largest US-listed companies. That median is total pay for those named officers. It is not base salary, and it is not an associate-general-counsel band. The series lives on general counsel pay and on general counsel salary 2026. A health system that copies it onto a transactions requisition will clear the lawyers who have actually closed a divestiture out of the process.

Nashville carries health-system headquarters and physician-platform work, including the MSO structures that California and Oregon statutes now rewrite when the platform touches those states. Boston carries life-sciences acquisitions and the licensing files that sit beside them. New York carries sponsors, payers, and the law-firm deal teams that staff both. Chicago carries regional systems and the divestiture work Kaufman Hall’s first-quarter report puts at 15 of 22 announcements. A search that is truly national should say so. A search that is secretly one of these four should not be briefed as “US healthcare M&A, any city.”

• Kaufman Hall, 15 January 2026 — 46 announced hospital and health-system transactions in 2025, a decrease from 2024; transacted revenue $18.5 billion, the lowest since tracking began; 17 announcements in the fourth quarter, including four mega mergers; $9.8 billion of the $18.5 billion recorded in the fourth quarter; 43.5 percent of transactions involved a financially distressed party, described as a record high.
• Kaufman Hall, 2025 year-end review — distressed share 30.6 percent in 2024 and 43.5 percent in 2025; 20 financially distressed sellers; five mega mergers in the year; for-profit seller in 11 announcements and for-profit acquirer in one; distressed smaller-party revenue $345 million, versus $401 million the prior year; smaller parties rated A- or higher were 12.3 percent in 2023, 2.8 percent in 2024, and 2.2 percent in 2025; year-end total excludes deals announced and canceled in 2025.
• Kaufman Hall, 9 April 2026 — 22 announced transactions in the first quarter of 2026, the highest first-quarter level since 2020; transacted revenue $14.5 billion; three mega mergers; 4 of 22 financially distressed; 15 of 22 divestitures.
• Kaufman Hall / Vizient, Q1 2026 quarterly report — average smaller-party revenue $657 million; 15 announcements in the third quarter of 2025 and 17 in the fourth; 2025 divestiture share 45.6 percent; six for-profit acquirers in the quarter, against one in all of 2025.
• Bain & Company, 8 January 2026 — estimated $191 billion of global healthcare private-equity deal value in 2025; 445 announced buyouts.
• Bain, Global Healthcare Private Equity Report 2026 — 2025 estimate is actual data through 30 November 2025, annualized; add-on deals below $250 million are excluded; 26 North American transactions above $1 billion through November 2025, versus 14 in full-year 2024, more than 70 percent sponsor-to-sponsor; physician groups 28 percent of global provider transactions in 2021 and 23 percent in the 2025 estimate.
• EY, 12 January 2026 — global life-sciences M&A $240 billion in 2025, up 81 percent from $130 billion in 2024; deal volume down 12 percent (biopharma down 19 percent, MedTech up 6 percent); average deal size $2.1 billion, up 107 percent; Firepower $2.1 trillion.
• Federal Trade Commission, January 2026 — Hart-Scott-Rodino thresholds effective 17 February 2026; minimum size of transaction $133.9 million, prior threshold $126.4 million; adjusted $200 million threshold $535.5 million.
• Federal Trade Commission, June 2026 — proposed consent order in Ascension’s $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg; divestiture of seven ambulatory surgery centers; prior notice for ten years.
• Federal Trade Commission, 25 August 2026 — final consent order approving that divestiture and prior notice of further surgery-center acquisitions in the affected metropolitan areas.
• California Senate Bill 351, approved by the Governor on 6 October 2025 — Division 1.7 of the Health and Safety Code, restrictions on private-equity and hedge-fund control of physician and dental practices.
• Benesch, 14 October 2025 — states that Senate Bill 351 is effective 1 January 2026.
• Oregon Senate Bill 951, enrolled — emergency clause, effective on passage; Section 1 first applies 1 January 2026 to management services organizations and professional medical entities organized on or after the effective date, and 1 January 2029 to those that existed before.
• Wilson Sonsini — dates enactment of Senate Bill 951 to 9 June 2025.
• Department of Justice, 16 January 2026 — False Claims Act settlements and judgments exceeded $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, with more than $5.7 billion related to health care.
• Bloomberg Law, 2 June 2026 — Milbank associate scale $235,000 to $455,000; McDermott the first to match.
• Above the Law, 2 June 2026 — new scale effective 1 July 2026.
• ACC / Empsight, 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey, executive summary released 16 September 2025 — Attorney median base $148,000; Senior Attorney median base $201,000; Associate General Counsel median base $245,000. Not a healthcare-transactions dollar.