Andrew E. Thurman 

Adjunct Instructor
athurman@wpahs.org

Andrew E. Thurman is a solo practitioner specializing in health care law. He was formerly the Assistant General Counsel of the West Penn Allegheny Health System, where he coordinated the legal advice provided to Forbes Regional and Allegheny Valley Hospitals while providing legal services relating to ethics, research compliance, credentialing and insurance for the entire system. He joined the Forbes Health System in July, 1989, as Senior Vice President and General Counsel, and became a Senior Counsel of Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation ("AHERF") when Forbes joined the Allegheny system. He was the senior in-house legal officer for Allegheny University Hospitals-West as that system avoided the AHERF bankruptcy and affiliated with the West Penn system. Mr. Thurman has been a licensed attorney since 1979, having received his undergraduate degree from Columbia College of Columbia University, his law degree from Marshall-Wythe School of Law, the College of William and Mary, and a Masters of Public Health in Health Administration from the University of Oklahoma. He attended secondary school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Ma.

Mr Thurman began his health care law career in 1979 as the counsel for the State of Oklahoma Teaching Hospitals. In 1984 he joined the Oklahoma City law firm of Miller, Dollarhide Dawson and Shaw, where his practice focused exclusively on representing hospitals and other healthcare providers. Mr. Thurman relocated his practice to Pittsburgh in 1988, where he first joined the law firm of Berkman Ruslander Pohl Lieber and Engel as a partner, and then joined Buchanan Ingersoll P.C. prior to moving to Forbes Health System.

While in Oklahoma, Mr. Thurman was a trustee of the Newman Memorial Hospital in Shatrtuck, Oklahoma, and he has also served as a trustee and corporate officer of numerous charitable, health care, and health care law organizations. Additionally, Mr. Thurman served for several years as the Chairman of the Ethics Task Force of the Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Thurman has published several articles concerning health care ethical issues. He has been listed in Who's Who in American Law since 1987, and in Who's Who in America since 1998. He is a frequent speaker on bioethical and organizational ethics issues.

Mr. Thurman lives with his wife and four sons in the Pittsburgh area, where he is active in the Presbyterian Church.