BVMLAW.COM - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys

Ms. Blume is a member of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys (NAPTA). She also serves as a Special Master in Connecticut Superior Court for tax appeal matters. Ms. Blume is admitted to practice in Connecticut in both state and federal courts. She received her B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island in 1985 and her J.D. from Quinnipiac University School of Law in 1988.

Christopher M. McKeon concentrates his practice in the areas of Real Estate, Business and Finance, Land Use, and Litigation related to these practice areas. Mr. McKeon represents institutions, businesses, and individuals in a wide array of transactional matters. His real estate practice includes representation of owners, lenders, developers, tenants and joint ventures in all aspects of real estate projects including acquisition, land use permitting, development, construction, financing and leasing. His real estate clients are involved in retail, office, industrial, multi-family and residential real estate projects.

Job Titles:

• Associate at Bershtein
• Member of the Connecticut Bar Association

Kathleen Tommaso is an associate at Bershtein, Volpe & McKeon. She practices in the areas of state and federal regulatory health care law and general corporate law. Ms. Tommaso has experience in managed care, employment contracts, licensure and certification, regulatory compliance, risk management, regulatory analysis, corporate transactions, physician business mergers and acquisitions, entity formation and dissolution, health information technology, and health information privacy. Ms. Tommaso received her B.A. from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas in 2007 and received her J.D. from Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Connecticut in 2011. Ms. Tommaso graduated from Quinnipiac magna cum laude with an honors concentration in health law. Prior to joining Bershtein, Volpe & McKeon, P.C., Ms. Tommaso clerked at a large firm working with health care privacy issues, HIPAA, corporate transactions, and regulatory compliance. Ms. Tommaso is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association and is admitted to practice in Connecticut.

Michele M. Volpe has practiced for nearly thirty years in the field of corporate and regulatory health care law.  Her practice concentrates on state and federal health care law, including regulatory matters before state and federal agencies, managed care law, HIPAA, and corporate and contract law for physicians, hospitals and health care entities.  This includes experience in the formation of integrated delivery systems (Population Health Management Companies, Accountable Care Organizations, Physician Hospital Organizations, Independent Physician Associations), physician/hospital joint ventures, and various combinations of integrated models among health care providers.  She has extensive experience in the formation of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. Ms. Volpe also has experience with all aspects of Connecticut regulatory issues concerning the Department of Public Health and The Health Systems Planning Unit of the Office of Health Strategy ("OHS") as successor to the Office of Health Care Access ("OHCA"), including, but not limited to Certificate of Need, licensure issues, the representation of providers at public hearings and investigative proceedings.  Michele has had the opportunity to work on a variety of high profile matters in the health care industry in Connecticut, including the regulatory approval for the conversion of charitable health systems to for profit entities.   She has formed or advised countless numbers of physicians, physician practices and associations, as well as hospital networks throughout the Northeast.  She also has vast experience in representing providers in the negotiation of hospital-physician joint ventures, managed care contracts, and the application of federal and state laws and regulations including the federal anti-kickback statute and the federal physician self-referral laws.  Ms. Volpe has continuously been selected as a Best Lawyer in America® for her experience in the practice area of health care law as well as selected as Best Lawyers' 2014 and 2017 New Haven Health Care Law "Lawyer of the Year".  She maintains an AV® Preeminent rating on the Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review.  She has also (for several years) been selected as a Connecticut Super Lawyer®.  Michele received her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and her B.A. from Boston College.  She is an officer and director of the Connecticut Health Lawyers Association, a member of the Executive Committee of the Health Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, a member of the American Bar Association and a member of the American Health Lawyers Association.