LETTER TO VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL JASON MIYARES FROM OUR DOCTORS ABOUT FUNDING THEIR LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR THE UVA BOARD OF VISITORS' INVESTIGATION INTO CRAIG KENT AND MELINA KIBBE
October 14, 2024
To: Attorney General of Virginia Jason Miyares
Cc: Governor Glenn Youngkin
To: The Rector and Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia
Robert D. Hardie
Carlos M. Brown
Robert M. Blue
Daniel M. Brody
U. Bertram Ellis Jr.
Marvin W. Gilliam Jr.
The Hon. Paul C. Harris
Stephen P. Long, MD
Paul B. Manning
John L. Nau III
David O. Okonkwo, MD
The Hon. L.F. Payne
Amanda L. Pillion
Rachel W. Sheridan
David F. Webb
Douglas D. Wetmore
Porter N. Wilkinson
Michael J. Kennedy
Lisa R. Kopelnik
Cc: University of Virginia Peer-Elected Faculty Leaders
Stephen H. Culp, MD
James H. Lambert
Michael Ragosta III, MD
Jeri K. Seidman
Megan C. Tracci, MD, JD
Re: Funding Legal Representation for Your UVA Doctors, Nurses, and Staff
Dear Attorney General Jason Miyares,
The UVA Board of Visitors has retained Williams & Connolly to conduct an investigation into the matters detailed in our September 5, 2024 No Confidence Letter. In its September 18, 2024 article regarding UVA’s action, The Daily Progress wrote that Williams & Connolly is "recognized as one of the world’s premier litigation firms." According to Williams & Connolly's website, "For over 20 years, Williams & Connolly has established itself as the firm that many large health care companies turn to when faced with high-stakes criminal and civil litigation."
Among its many prominent clients, Williams & Connolly defended Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of Theranos, in a case that alleged Holmes perpetrated multi-million-dollar wire-fraud schemes against investors and patients.
We are fortunate that, up to this point, a concerned attorney has agreed to interact with Williams & Connolly on our behalf pro bono to coordinate our efforts to willingly cooperate and safely present the evidence that supports our allegations.
Our attorney has stressed to us and to the Williams & Connolly attorneys the importance of us being provided legal representation during any meetings to ensure that any conclusions reached can be verified and fact checked. We will be discussing patient safety issues including deaths, financial malfeasance including criminal fraud, and retaliatory incidents that have resulted in some of our colleagues being demoted and fired. We have been advised consistently by attorneys and others that under no circumstances should we engage in interviews concerning these serious matters with UVA's retained litigators without having our own legal representation present.
In light of what we have witnessed at UVA Health, this seems to us to be eminently sensible counsel. In fact, we believe that to proceed in this investigation without legal representation would be not only irresponsible on our part, but detrimental to your investigation. However, when we requested funding for this legal representation, we were informed that you had refused our request.
Is this true? If so, we are perplexed by your position and ask you to consider the following:
• We wrote the 9/5/24 No Confidence Letter to the UVA Board of Visitors identifying serious issues at UVA Health after exhausting every available UVA-sanctioned approach and getting nowhere. This included us and/or our employment attorneys taking many of the issues directly to your appointee, Cliff Iler, University Counsel and Senior Assistant Attorney General at the University of Virginia.
• The immediate response to our letter from our leadership was to attack us in the press and question our character and professional ethics. Furthermore, there have been additional threats and actions since 9/5/24 that appear to be retaliatory. These actions are being reported to Carolyn Devine Saint via the new process established by the UVA Board of Visitors in response to our request for a more effective anti-retaliation response.
• Many of us have been directly contacted by Williams & Connolly. Often these outreaches have occurred outside of normal business hours, in what might be described as an intimidating or even aggressive manner.
• In light of these events, can you please explain why some members of our group have been urged by UVA leadership to go ahead and talk to your investigators without legal representation?
• Our goal, as we've stated numerous times, is to protect UVA Health, its patients, doctors, nurses, staff, faculty, and trainees from the harm being caused by the serious problems we have identified. We have crucial evidence for your investigators. We urgently desire to cooperate with them. Are you suggesting that we ourselves should also bear the burden of paying for this cooperation?
• We would like to believe we have a shared goal with the UVA Board of Visitors, you, and Governor Youngkin to conduct a thorough investigation through which we can provide the evidence to support the allegations in our 9/5/24 No Confidence Letter and assist UVA in correcting these serious issues for the benefit of our patients, colleagues, trainees, and staff.
• We further believe that having legal representation will better organize the faculty and our evidence, which would strengthen the credibility of the investigation in the eyes of the UVA community.
• Assuming we do indeed share the same goal of arriving at the truth, why wouldn't you want to create an environment in which UVA's own doctors, nurses, and staff can share their evidence with you? Why hasn't Williams & Connolly done so already?
Considering all the above, we ask, again, whether the decision communicated by Williams & Connolly that the UVA Board of Visitors will not fund our legal representation to support their investigation is in fact your position as the Attorney General of Virginia? Is your decision based on an official Commonwealth of Virginia policy and, if so, can you please cite the policy?
If this is in fact your position, then we urge you to reconsider and respectfully request that you authorize the UVA Board of Visitors to fund our legal representation as we present the evidence to the commonwealth-funded Williams & Connolly attorneys hired in conjunction with the investigation into the serious matters outlined in our September 5, 2024 No Confidence Letter.
*** If you are employed by UVA Health, the UVA School of Medicine, and/or the UVA Physicians Group, your colleagues have engaged legal representation to support each of you in bringing forth your evidence in the safest way possible.
No one should feel pressured to meet with Williams & Connolly’s attorneys without having your own legal representation present.
If you are contacted by Williams & Connolly or wish to initiate contact with them, your UVA School of Medicine Faculty Senate Representatives and CSEC Leadership can provide information on how other faculty members have approached receiving advice, preparing for discussions, and ensuring appropriate protections, given the seriousness of these matters.
You can also email FightingForUVAHealth@proton.me for more information. ***
What is going on at UVA Health?
We are Concerned Citizens of Charlottesville and Patients of UVA Health who are troubled by what we have heard from many UVA Health professionals over the past year.
These professionals are not only our doctors and nurses but also our friends, family and neighbors. We believe our community should value and protect its health care workers who have dedicated their lives to helping UVA patients.
A Parrhesiastes is someone who speaks the truth in a clear and honest way…
It's about the courage to speak one’s mind even when it's difficult or unpopular…to prioritize truth over social niceties or personal gain...
But speaking the truth can be dangerous. A Parrhesiastes understands this risk and is willing to face the consequences, from social disapproval to vindictive employers or even violence...
Because ultimately Parrhesiastes act out of a sense of duty.
They believe speaking the truth is necessary for the greater good and to protect the people and institution they love.