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Clinically informed legal guidance

I provide practitioners, groups, and companies with a variety of solutions and guidance for concerns big and small, common and rare.  Chances are that if you have an issue or concern, I've seen it before and can help.  â€‹

I serve as an on-call attorney for practitioners, clinics, institutes, professional associations, behavioral health technology companies, and organizations throughout California on a variety of matters relating to standards of practice, law/ethics, as well as matters of state and federal law.  I also provide consultation services to other attorneys on matters relating to the standards of care.  My clients reach me via phone,  email, or in-person when the need arises.  When my clients have a law-related question, rather than scour the internet or canvas their local colleagues, they simply call me and get the answer.  Where appropriate, I work with other attorneys and have the ability to expand my operations.

pencil sketch of a modern comfortable psychotherapy office containing a comfortable couch,

Common issues:

Defending your practice:

  • Licensing board complaints and inquiries

  • Licensing board accusations and defense

  • Continuing education and charting audits

  • Peer review and credentialing inquiries

Representing your practice:

  • Realistic and prudent risk management

  • Charting and documentation

  • Termination and referrals

  • Parents in conflict

  • Records requests​

  • Deteriorating clinical relationships

  • Billing concerns

Maintaining your practice:

  • Deposition subpoenas

  • Responding to correspondence from attorneys

  • Responding to subpoenas for records

  • Protecting clinical work from legal intrusions

Building your practice:

  • Starting a private practice

  • Starting a group practice

  • Incorporating your practice

  • Paperwork and forms

  • Working with professional liability carrier

For technology companies; legal guidance in behavioral health tech

Innovative and relevant guidance

I frequently serve as outside counsel to tech companies that offer tools to clinicians and patients. My clients have been featured in publications such as the New York Times, CNET, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, and other publications.

The remarkable tools my clients have built include artificial intelligence tools and platforms, comprehensive telehealth platforms, services and applications that connect therapists to patients, online curricula and workshops, social networks for specialized populations, secure recordkeeping systems, behavioral monitoring applications, coaching applications, and many others.

As outside counsel I provide clinically-informed guidance on affiliating with or employing licensed professionals, designing internal risk management procedures, developing documentation, HIPAA/legal compliance, business structures, as well as a host of niche legal solutions for unique and cutting edge companies.

As the head of the team that built the App Store's first HIPAA-compliant iPad notetaking app, I am intimately familiar with the practical, technical, marketing, and legal challenges that come from providing technology products in the healthcare space. Put simply: developing health technology products is hard but it can be done well.

If your team is building a new tool and wants to talk about the challenges you are facing, call or send me an email: 415-891-4111 or alban@clinicallawyer.com.

Contacting me & getting started

I connect with clients via phone, text, Zoom, WhatsApp, email, or in-person.
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The onboarding process is very fast and easy; it just takes a few minutes to get started:


​Email: alban@clinicallawyer.com
Phone/Text: 415-891-4111

About:

​Contrary to what you might imagine, having an attorney for your practice is quite easy: it just takes an initial email or call to ask if I can be of assistance.  I've been doing this for a while and it's very likely that you have a friend or colleague who I've worked with in the past.

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I have a M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Michigan State University. I also have a J.D. from American University in Washington, DC. I am admitted to practice law in California and am licensed as a psychologist in California. (PSY 21568) (SBN #248546)

Since 2007, I have provided clinically-informed legal services to practitioners, groups, treatment centers, tech companies, businesses, throughout California. My legal clients include individual practitioners, group practices, multi-site clinics, hospitals, and professional associations. This includes representation for a wide variety of legal concerns including licensing board complaints, deposition representation, privacy breaches, expert witness support, and all manner of clinical/professional challenges.  I work with clients in-person, via telephone/email, and videoconference to support and grow their practices.  I am a frequent contributing author to professional publications and a continuing education speaker on the intersection of law and mental health practice.  Prior to moving to California I worked in the General Counsel’s office for the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. 

My clinical background includes forensic, neuropsychological, psychodiagnostic assessments, crisis intervention, and both short-term and long-term psychotherapy. I have worked in private practice, hospital, clinic, and school-based settings with individuals ages 5-95.  

Law Office
Important Stuff:
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VERY IMPORTANT: This website is for basic information only. Nothing in this site should be construed to be formal legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. If you are intending to use as legal advice the information you receive from this (or any other) general information website, please take this tip: DON’T. The advice you receive from talking with your attorney about your specific situation may be different; the details are very important.  That includes if I post articles or links to articles on this website, which are for general educational purposes only and should not be misconstrued as advice about what you should do in your situation.

This website is maintained for mental health professionals as a source of information about mental health law, specifically as it pertains to practice in California. It’s important to remember that this website focuses on California law, because much of the law that applies to mental health practice is state-specific. It is true that there are many similarities between the laws of the various states, but the details can be very different and make a world of difference in the practical application of the law.  If you see an article on this website you think is interesting, that's great.  But the articles are for general information purposes only and may or many not apply to your specific situation.

It is also a good idea to remember that law is a dynamic field and changes regularly. Statutes, regulations, and case law change, sometimes more rapidly than can be updated here. In addition, the real-world situations about which many people have questions are often more complicated than they realize. Because of this, it would be unwise to consider the information contained in these pages as legal counsel.

Also consider that other people, not solely myself, can sometimes post to this site, and because of this the information contained in it may be unreliable. Please please please do yourself a favor and consult an attorney for a real-world conversation. An ounce of prevention is often worth a few pounds of cure.

And a note about content: if you think the information on this website is useful and informative, that makes me very happy.  If you would like to use the content or reproduce it somewhere, please contact me.  I’ll try to respond to you as soon as possible.  Please don’t use my materials without attribution, or use them as your own or on behalf of an organization.  That’s not only intellectually dishonest, it’s also very uncool.

The psy and inverted scales logo on this website is custom, trademarked, and not for use or reproduction elsewhere. 
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