Emory Healthcare has appointed Gina Bertolini, JD, a nationally respected health care attorney, as chief counsel for health affairs, effective Sept. 1, 2025. Bertolini brings over 20 years of experience as a health care regulatory attorney representing hospitals and health care systems.
 
Bertolini will lead a legal team that has significant depth and expertise in representing Emory Healthcare. Her strategic insight and collaborative approach will help guide her team through an evolving legal and regulatory landscape.
 
Bertolini joins Emory most recently from K&L Gates in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where she was a partner in the firm's Health Care Practice Group, representing health care providers nationwide. Previously, Bertolini was a deputy general counsel with the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, representing Michigan Medicine, and before that, an associate general counsel with the University of North Carolina Health System in Chapel Hill. Bertolini started her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Elizabeth Jenkins, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge for the Middle District of Florida (retired).
 
“Gina is an accomplished health care legal executive with a wealth of experience in academic medicine and health care legal practice,” says Joon S. Lee, MD, executive vice president for health affairs of Emory University and CEO of Emory Healthcare. “We look forward to the knowledge and collaborative mindset she will bring to our enterprise.”
 
"I am thrilled to be joining Emory's Office of General Counsel, which has and will continue to provide exceptional legal services to Emory Healthcare,” says Bertolini. “I am also honored to join the Emory Healthcare leadership team, providing legal guidance as Emory Healthcare builds on its rich tradition of improving lives through compassionate patient care, clinical innovation and exceptional medical education."
 
Bertolini received a bachelor of fine arts degree from DePaul University in Chicago and a juris doctor from University of California Hastings College of Law (now U.C. Law San Francisco).
 
Bertolini succeeds Emory Deputy General Counsel Elizabeth (Beth) Clark Morrison, who has served as interim chief counsel for health affairs since September 2023. Morrison will assume a similar leadership role for Emory University, and will continue to manage faculty, resident and employment issues for Emory University’s School of Medicine and Emory Healthcare.
 
“I am grateful to Beth for her outstanding leadership as interim chief counsel for health affairs for the past two years,” says Lee. “We have relied on Beth’s thoughtful guidance and skill during this time, and I know she will excel in her next legal role working with the broader Emory community.”