Emanuel, Richard

Madhu Chugh is a senior associate in the Litigation/Controversy Department and a member of the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation and Government and Regulatory Litigation Practice Groups. Ms. Chugh has also taught Health Law & Policy as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and she is currently a scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown.

Practice

Ms. Chugh’s practice focuses on appellate and government litigation with a particular emphasis on health care. She also provides strategic advice on legal issues with public policy dimensions and represents clients in congressional investigations. Ms. Chugh’s recent experience includes:

• Briefing an appeal in the Ninth Circuit involving questions of preclusion and preemption under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
• Drafting an amicus brief in the Supreme Court arguing that Medicaid beneficiaries and providers may bring a cause of action directly under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution to force state compliance with provisions of the Medicaid Act.
• Providing strategic guidance to companies and trade associations regarding trends in federal prosecution, civil enforcement and compliance.
• Serving as counsel for a company in connection with a congressional inquiry regarding compliance with federal health care laws.

Past Experience

During the 2004 presidential election, Ms. Chugh served as the Director of Health Care Policy for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. She was the Policy Director on Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s 2002 campaign, and from 2001-2002, she worked on health care policy for Senator Edward Kennedy. During her time in the US Senate, she helped develop and pass the Health Care Safety Net Amendments, which increased funding for community health centers and the National Health Service Corps program, as well as created the Healthy Communities Access Program. In 1998, Ms. Chugh served as Deputy Communications Director on Tom Vilsack’s successful gubernatorial campaign in Iowa, where he was the first Democrat to be elected governor in more than 30 years. She then served as the Deputy Communications Director in the Governor’s office from 1999 to 2000, where she organized a coalition of 70 groups to help pass legislation that invested Iowa’s share of a large tobacco settlement in creating and expanding health care programs.