‘A Natural Progression’

For Brandon Hall, working as a health care and employee benefits attorney is a meeting of two paths. 

As an undergrad at State University of New York at Albany, Hall was a political science and public policy major who worked with several members of the state Legislature as part of the school’s programs. “I spent three of my four years working in the capitol there,” he says. 

Upon graduation, he served as a legal assistant for a government relations practice, where he researched bills, tracked legislation, sat in on meetings and learned from the ground up. When he moved to St. Louis, most similar positions required a J.D. Rather than going to law school, he took a job with a medical startup company, selling cardiac monitors to practices and hospitals. 

“I got into device sales to help people,” says Hall, who became frustrated by the inconsistencies he saw in meeting patient needs. “There were certain folks who were getting devices who maybe didn’t need them, but other folks couldn’t get the devices that they needed. It was based on insurance or geographic area or other things that were out of my control as a salesperson.

“I was getting frustrated by the inability to help certain people when they really needed it,” he continues. “After butting up my head through multiple different avenues and getting nowhere, I wasn’t getting the fulfillment.”

Sales is go, go, go, close, close, close. And law doesn’t always work that way.

That’s when he turned to law school at Saint Louis University. In his second year, Hall took a health law class and did well. “The professor pulled me aside and said, ‘This area of law, not many people like it or do well with it. I would pursue that.’ In hindsight,” Hall says of proceeding with the health law program, “it seemed to be a natural progression.”

Hall’s current practice includes ERISA cases, insurance disputes, government enforcements and education for employers. Compared to his sales job, billable hours have been an adjustment, but so have the resources and team that a large law firm can provide. 

“Sales is go, go, go, close, close, close,” he says. “And law doesn’t always work that way—particularly with ERISA litigation. Cases can go on for years.” 

For example, Hall has an ERISA case pending on appeal after 2 ½  years of legal work. “It was very complex, very challenging, very hyper-nuanced. I trusted my gut throughout, and I had some good mentorship who provided counsel and support along the way,” says Hall, who hopes the appeal will uphold an initial win for his client. “For being early in my career, to ride that one out, get a win, get the fees on it, it was kind of like hitting a grand slam.” 

Outside of his firm work, Hall teaches a grassroots health, policy and advocacy class at his alma mater. The class of five or six students spends the first part of the year learning all about advocacy policy tools, as well as Medicare and Medicaid. Then they work with the public health nonprofit Missouri Appleseed, for which Hall is president of the board, to identify and support bills going before the state Legislature. At the capitol, the students lobby, provide testimony, write op-eds, and meet with legislators and their staffs to talk about the legal impacts of the bills. 

“It’s sort of an alternative way to use their J.D. in the policy space, but in a way that also overlaps with health care,” Hall says. “This year we worked on five different bills in our class, and all five actually got passed and signed by the governor.”

Hall took the class himself, and knows firsthand the benefit it can be to health care law students. “It’s a unique law school class. There are no tests, you’re not writing papers. It’s a whole different experience,” he says. “I hope they find more ways to be more confident in themselves.” 

Having settled into his practice, and with selling cardiac monitors years in the rearview, Hall now feels like he truly is helping people. “To provide peace of mind—and to take something that’s super dry, complicated, not really fun, and make it [so] that anybody can understand—I feel like I’m doing great help here.”