Reframing the Terms of Legal Service for
Health Technology Innovators
About the Firm
Aperture Law Group delivers legal and strategic advisory services to innovators that develop healthcare technology and services to make healthcare more efficient, effective and accessible. Freed from the overhead and constraints of Big Law practice, Aperture Law Group offers a range of services and fee structures to meet the needs of innovators at different growth stages, including start-ups, middle market companies and large enterprises. This allows us to reframe the terms of legal service by bringing a consultative orientation to our work. Our expertise, skillsets and experience give us the agility to shift perspectives and either expand or sharpen our lens to serve our clients’ strategic or legal needs. We also reframe the terms of legal service by designing engagements under project-based or fixed fee arrangements. Our proposals improve accountability and the assurance of exceptional value by including detailed workplans and timelines, deliverable specifications and a description of our relevant qualifications.
Our Services
About the Founder
Welcome to Aperture Law Group! My name is Jill DeGraff. I founded Aperture Law Group to advance technology innovation in healthcare by helping companies develop their products and services, business practices and partnerships on a consistent foundation of compliance with healthcare, privacy and security requirements. With expertise in privacy, data use/protection/governance, IP issues, contracting and health law/policy, my services include:
- Counseling on privacy policies
- Serving as an independent privacy monitor in post-investigation contexts
- Counseling product teams on the implementation and expression of security frameworks for trusted exchange of health information across distributed networks and systems
- Structuring and negotiating technology contracting arrangements
- Drafting terms of service, privacy policies and security standards
- Advising strategic leaders on the implications of existing health law, regulation and policy to unfamiliar business situations and on the business and legal implications of emerging regulatory areas
Before forming Aperture Law Group, I was a partner with the healthcare practice of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Before that, I held general counsel and associate general counsel positions with three technology companies, including e-commerce pioneer CyberCash, a public company, and digital health pioneer AFrame Digital. I began my career as a corporate attorney at Morrison & Foerster, where I represented clients operating in the financial services and technology sectors.
I received my J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, a B.A. from Wellesley College (cum laude) and a graduate certificate in health policy from George Washington University’s Milken School for Public Health.
I delight in making the impossible possible, in making difficult processes navigable, and in making repeatable processes effortless.
Jill is an exceptional business partner who’s understanding of business dynamics, changes in the regulatory environment, emergence of new business models and sound legal advice is second to none. She is very thorough and works start-up hours when needed. She brings opportunities to the table. She removes opportunities if the legal or business risk is too high. Rarely do you come across someone who will go above and beyond what it takes to be your advisor, mentor, sounding board or booster.
Start-up entrepreneur
Alternative Fee Arrangements
Aperture reframes the terms of legal service by designing engagements under project-based or fixed fee arrangements. Our proposals improve accountability and the assurance of exceptional value by including detailed workplans and timelines, deliverable specifications and a description of our relevant qualifications. This allows us to adopt a consultative posture that aligns with client goals.
Our Clients
We believe that growth stage, mid-market and Fortune 500 companies can benefit from an independent and competitively priced healthcare technology and privacy lawyer. We also work alongside – not against – Big Law firms.
CORPORATE LEGAL DEPARTMENTS
We offer corporate law departments extensible, outsourced and competitively priced solutions that streamline the implementation of privacy- and technology-related projects. These projects aim to accelerate vendor assessment, ease the burden of vendor management, reduce the cost of managing business associate compliance and reduce the risk of breach through business associates. Representative projects involve:
+ Independent privacy monitoring
+ Compliance program implementation
+ Counseling on privacy laws and data protection standards
+ End user terms of service, acceptable use and privacy policies for digital properties
+ Technology procurement and contracting
+ Contract structuring and negotiation
GROWTH STAGE AND MIDDLE MARKET COMPANIES
We provide the same services for growth stage and middle market companies as we do for larger enterprises with established legal departments. Think of us as your fractional privacy, product or transactions counsel. We also provide legal advice to help innovators understand the implications of emerging areas health law, regulation and policy, and apply existing health laws and regulations to the digital environment. Areas of law include:
+ Telephone Consumer Protection Act (text messaging)
+ Federal Trade Commission Act (mobile apps and websites)
+ FDA 510(k) for digital health software-as-a-medical device, including the pre-certification pilot
+ Federal and state telehealth regulation and reimbursement policy
BIG LAW FIRMS
We partner with Big Law firms when their clients need more hands-on attention, or when their clients need an independent privacy consultant to review and monitor corrective actions after a breach investigation by federal or state authorities.
