Former Dallas partner Brad Nitschke practiced at Jackson Walker for almost 14 years. Now, he serves as Associate General Counsel at Parkland Health & Hospital System. With a legal career spanning both private practice and in-house roles, Brad has gained valuable experience in various aspects of law. Recently, Brad shared what he has been up to in recent years, his experience at Jackson Walker, and what lies ahead for his career. Below is a Q&A featuring the JW alumnus:

Where do you work and what is the nature of your responsibilities?

I’m Associate General Counsel for Operations and Regulatory matters at Parkland Health, Dallas County’s public safety net hospital. As an operations lawyer, I provide legal support to all of our clinical service lines and non-clinical divisions and touch on nearly every subject matter. On a given day, that may include helping our regional Level 1 trauma center resolve a patient-facing challenge, working with our Level IV maternal care center to interpret and apply new state laws, or negotiating a purchase agreement for a new clinic site with our real estate partners.

What do you appreciate the most about the time you spent at JW?

Because of the breadth of subject matter I cover at Parkland, I’m especially grateful that my time at JW exposed me to so many different areas of the law. I also think the first-class litigation training and experience I had at JW were excellent preparation for my in-house practice—being an effective business partner to my internal clients requires the ability to quickly distill a situation to its key points and effectively advocate for an outcome in much the same way a litigation practice does.

Do you have a favorite JW memory you would like to share?
There are almost too many to choose from. One memory that stands out, though, is a particularly late Friday night in the office working towards a midnight motions practice deadline in a large construction defect case. As the senior partner on the case, Mark Josephs left the late-night work in the capable hands of our team, who were sprinting to get motions filed and served on 30-plus opposing parties on time. When the last email confirmation was received, the team sat back in our chairs, took a deep breath, and quickly hatched a plan to toilet paper Mark’s house as a way of letting him know we’d finished the task at hand on time. An hour later, Mark and Jaymie’s teenaged kids were shocked to find a bedraggled group of rapidly aging lawyers (rather than their own peers) clumsily launching rolls of Charmin around their front yard.

Where do you see your career heading?

If I’d answered this question five years ago, I’m not sure I could have predicted I’d be where I am today, but it’s a good place to be. Each day my team shows up and does our job, we help ensure that folks who wouldn’t otherwise have access to high-quality, life-saving healthcare have it. It’s hard to ask for more than that.

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