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Tenia L. Clayton

Associate

Tenia L. Clayton is a health care attorney with a focus on transactions and other corporate matters as well as regulatory and compliance matters.

Professional Biography


As a member of the Health Law Group, Ms. Clayton concentrates her practice on assisting health care organizations in a variety of transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions and other corporate matters. She assists in a full range of phases throughout the timeline of transactions, from due diligence to closing. Her clients include a variety of entities in the health care industry, including hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, behavioral health facilities, and physician-owned practices.

Ms. Clayton has experience counseling these clients on incident response and compliance obligations imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 42 CFR Part 2, as well as state privacy laws. She works on a variety of other compliance matters including physician employment, fraud and abuse review, and corporate practice of medicine. She also has experience researching and advising organ procurement organizations on federal and state regulatory and compliance issues, analysis and implication of proposed rules, and other distinct issues.

Prior to joining Baker Donelson, Ms. Clayton served in the real estate asset management division of the Tennessee Department of General Services, and the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Nashville, Tennessee. She also completed a term of service with AmeriCorps before law school.

  • Represented a behavioral health provider operating 23 psychiatric hospitals and outpatient programs along the Gulf Coast, as seller's counsel in its $310 million sale to a buyer with financing provided by a private equity firm.

  • Represented Strategic Behavioral Health in its $170 million sale of eight psychiatric hospitals to a Tennessee-based behavioral health and addiction treatment center.

  • Represented a Texas-based physician cardiology group in an arrangement with a private equity-backed management company involving a $37 million clinical asset sale with rollover equity grant, which included navigating health care regulatory challenges.

  • Member – American Health Law Association
  • Member – Lawyers' Association for Women, Marion Griffin Chapter
  • Member – Napier-Looby Bar Association
  • Member – American Bar Association
    • Fellow, Health Law Section Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship Program (2024 – 2025)
  • Member – Leadership Health Care
    • Recruitment Committee (2021 – 2022)
  • Co-chair – Baker Women Retention Committee
  • Named a Top 40 Under 40 by The National Black Lawyers (2023)
  • "Stark Law Nuggets: Hidden Gems and Landmines Buried Beneath the Surface," Nashville Council of Health Care Attorneys (June 2023)
  • "22nd Annual Health Law Primer," Tennessee Bar Association (October 2022)
  • "Choosing Your Career Path with Intention," Vanderbilt Law School Women's Association (April 2022)
  • "Baker's Dozen Round-Up," Baker Donelson Women's Initiative Wrap It Up CLE Event (December 2021)

Industries

Education

  • Belmont University College of Law, J.D., 2020, cum laude
    • Senior Editor, Belmont Law Review
    • CALI Award for Excellence, Criminal Constitutional Law (Spring 2019)
    • Health Law Certificate
  • Emory University, B.A. in Human Health, 2016

Admissions

  • Tennessee, 2021

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