UnitedHealth Hires Defamation Firm Over Social Media Posts (1)

UnitedHealth Group Inc. has hired a prominent defamation law firm to counter what it sees as inaccurate and irresponsible social media posts about the company’s practices.

Clare Locke, an Alexandria, Virginia-based boutique law firm, is working for UnitedHealth, the company confirmed. A doctor “is using her social media following to perpetuate inaccuracies, which is irresponsible, unethical and dangerous,” UnitedHeath said in a statement.

The hiring shows the biggest US health insurer is pushing back against public statements it views as false following the high-profile death of an executive. Clare Locke is best known for representing Dominion Voting Systems Inc. in a landmark $787.5 million defamation settlement with Fox Corp.'s Fox News.

Social media platforms lit up with criticisms and even hatred of health insurers following the Dec. 4 murder of Brian Thompson, the chief executive officer of the company’s UnitedHealthcare unit, outside an investor conference in New York. Luigi Mangione, who had allegedly decried health industry practices, faces murder charges in Manhattan.

Elisabeth Potter, an Austin, Texas, plastic surgeon, claimed on Instagram Jan. 7 that UnitedHealth denied an in-patient stay after surgery related to cancer. “I had to scrub out mid-surgery to call United, only to find that the person on the line didn’t even have access to the patient’s full medical information, despite the procedure already being pre-approved,” Potter said in the post.

One of Potter’s attorneys, Jessica Underwood, said Potter received a Jan. 13 letter from Clare Locke demanding that she correct her posts, apologize to UnitedHealth and condemn threats of violence that the law firm said resulted from the posts.

But Underwood, of the law firm Nix Patterson, said Potter’s statements about the insurer were truthful. “Dr. Potter will not be silenced by UnitedHealthcare’s attempts to threaten and harass her,” Underwood said.

UnitedHealth said in its statement that it had previously approved coverage of the care the patient received, including coverage of an overnight stay. “Dr. Potter’s claims that she was called out of surgery are false,” the company said. “There are no insurance related circumstances that would require a physician to step out of surgery and it would create potential safety risks if they were to do so.”

Clare Locke’s letter to Potter was signed by Tom Clare, who founded the firm in 2014 with his wife and former fellow Kirkland & Ellis partner Elizabeth “Libby” Locke.

Firm partner Jered Ede also signed the letter. Before joining the firm, Ede served as chief legal officer for Project Veritas, the conservative nonprofit that goes undercover to expose what it sees as wrongdoing.

The 17-attorney Clare Locke has built a reputation for winning high-stakes defamation matters and often handles referrals from Big Law firms including Kirkland, McGuireWoods, Davis Polk & Wardwell, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Clare Locke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.