Pacific West Law Group, LLP

Focus and practice areas

Health care law is the firm's single field. Its clients are physicians, psychologists, nurses and other health care professionals. The firm also represents medical staffs, medical groups and outpatient medical clinics. That focus runs through the whole practice.

A single-field practice tends to see the same statutes and the same boards again and again. For a physician or a clinic, that familiarity is often the reason to hire counsel in the first place. The regulators in this area follow their own rules and their own timelines. A firm that works here daily has reason to know them.

The named services group into a few areas. The firm handles professional licensing and discipline, peer review and credentialing, medical staff representation, and regulatory compliance. It advises health care organizations on compliance questions. It also counsels e-health companies that do business online.

In my opinion, that range points to a practice organized around one industry and its regulators. Much of the work concerns how medical professionals earn, keep and defend their credentials. It also reaches the newer area of internet-based health services, where the rules are still settling.

How the team is built

The firm lists three attorneys: Karmin Kime, Sharon B. Kime and Brock D. Phillips. The firm says partners handle the client representation. According to the firm, its attorneys combine for 75 years of experience.

Brock D. Phillips is a founding partner with over 35 years of experience. Sharon B. Kime has represented clients in professional health care licensing and discipline cases. The site does not list a founding year or the law schools of the attorneys.

A short, named roster has a practical upside for clients. The person who takes the first call is likely to be the one on the file later. For matters that turn on a professional's livelihood, that continuity can count for a lot.

As a reviewer, I read the 75-year figure as a shared total across the group, which is how the firm frames it. A number like that speaks to tenure more than to any single result. Readers can weigh it next to the practice areas the firm names and the clients it takes on.

Who the firm represents

The client base splits into individuals and institutions. On the individual side are physicians, psychologists and nurses. On the institutional side are medical staffs, medical groups and clinics. Both meet the same regulatory system from different positions.

For an individual provider, a license is the thing that lets them work, so a discipline case carries real stakes. For a medical group or a hospital staff, the questions run more toward compliance, credentialing and internal review. A firm that represents both kinds of client sees how each one approaches the same rules.

The firm says it also works as a hearing officer or arbitrator in physician peer review hearings. That role puts an attorney in the neutral seat of the person who runs or decides a hearing. The same firm that argues a provider's case also knows how these panels reach a decision.

Where the firm practices

The firm's home base is Mill Valley, in Marin County, north of San Francisco. It lists further office locations on the Peninsula and in Monterey County. The firm says it serves clients throughout California.

Those three areas cover a long stretch of the northern and central coast. A provider near Monterey and one in the Bay Area can reach the same office. Statewide reach carries weight in health care, where licensing boards operate at the state level and a case can begin anywhere in California.

What these matters involve

Licensing and discipline

Health care discipline follows set procedures, and knowing them helps explain the firm's day-to-day work. A licensing matter generally starts with a complaint to a state board. The board can investigate, and the provider may face a formal accusation and a hearing. A license can be limited, suspended or revoked, so early legal help often shapes the outcome.

Peer review and credentialing

Peer review runs on a separate track. When a hospital examines a physician's clinical privileges, the review moves through a medical staff body. The outcome can affect where and how that physician practices. Credentialing decisions follow a similar internal path, and both can carry reporting consequences that reach beyond the single hospital.

Compliance and e-health

Regulatory compliance covers the rules a health care business must meet before problems start. For e-health companies, that can include how patient services move online and how records stay protected. Medical staff representation sits close by, since much of a hospital's compliance runs through its staff structure. The firm names all of these areas among its services.

Individual attorney profiles

The supporting attorney records provide education details for each listed lawyer. Brock D. Phillips earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1980. His individual practice profile includes medical malpractice and business litigation. Those subjects extend beyond the services identified in the firm's health care overview and give clients more context about the matters associated with his practice.

Sharon B. Kime attended the University of California at Davis School of Law. Her profile identifies insurance as an additional practice focus. The record presents that subject at the attorney level rather than as a firmwide service. A prospective client with an insurance issue would need to ask whether the matter falls within the firm's current scope.

Karmin Kime earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Davis, and attended Santa Clara University School of Law. Her supplied biography identifies intellectual property as her practice focus. It also describes her as based in Carmel Valley and practicing through the Law Offices of Karmin Lynn Kime. The record does not explain how that separate practice relates to Pacific West Law Group. In this reviewer's view, clients who wish to work with her should confirm the engagement structure and the office that would handle the file.

The attorney records provide no confirmed admission years. Phillips's 1980 J.D. year is an education date and should not be treated as a bar admission date. The same distinction applies to the other attorney profiles, which identify law schools without graduation or admission dates.

Main office and contact details

The main office has a specific street location at 100 Shoreline Highway, Building B, Suite 100, in Mill Valley. That detail is useful for clients who need an in-person meeting or must send documents to the firm. The listed telephone number is 415-789-9006. A separate fax line is available at 415-644-5630.

The website for the practice is pacificwestlaw.com. The supplied record gives the complete address only for the Mill Valley office, so clients seeking an appointment elsewhere should confirm the meeting location directly with the firm.