Garretson expands Charlotte office, will add 30 jobs

Local unit seeing rapid growth from its work on health-care settlements
by Will Boye, Staff Writer, Charlotte Business Journal

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The Garretson Firm is based in the other Queen City, but it’s hard to tell that from the company’s expansion plans in Charlotte.

The Cincinnati-based firm recently moved into new offices in SouthPark, and it plans to add as many as 30 employees over the next 18 months.

The Charlotte operation already has 45 employees, more than any other office of the 100-employee company.

The local unit handles the resolution of health-care litigation settlements, an area that has become the firm’s biggest and fastest-growing segment.

For individual lawsuits or mass torts, Garretson has developed a system for resolving liens of health-care providers such as Medicare of Medicaid. When a settlement is reached in a personal-injury suit, state laws typically require the injured person to use part of the settlement to reimburse the health-care provider that paid for the medical care to treat the injury. Early next year, a new federal law will require employers, providers and insurers to report to Medicare any settlements made to a Medicare beneficiary.

The heightened awareness around that compliance is a boon for Garretson.

Managing Director Jason Wolf, who grew up with founder Matt Garretson in Ohio and opened the local office six years ago, says what was once a “nerdy service offering” has evolved into an expanding business.

“We were very fortunate to uncover a spot that was very underserved,” Wolf says.

The firm recently took the fourth floor — more than 15,000 square feet — of the Rexford Park II building at 2115 Rexford Road. It also has first right of refusal on the third floor.

Garretson’s employees include attorneys, nurses, paralegals, project managers, analysts and specialists in billing and coding. In Charlotte, the company has open positions for analysts specializing in lien resolution and mass torts.

Because Garretson is in a niche market, Wolf says, the company looks for specific skills among its hires. It also seeks prospects who are “very organized, very disciplined ... and somebody that takes a lot of pride in their work,” he says.

Matt Garretson founded his firm in 2003. After graduating from Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University in 1998, he worked for a company that set up structured settlements. A few years later, he decided to go it alone. In 2003, he was hired to administer claims in a racial-profiling case in Cincinnati and a $25.7 million settlement of clergy-abuse claims in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky.

That same year, Congress passed a Medicare-reform bill that allowed the government to pursue lawsuit settlements when it covers the medical bills of patients injured by faulty drugs or consumer products. Garretson had developed a methodology for handling mass settlements. As a neutral party working on a fee basis, his firm offered a solution to a complex problem that all parties could accept. “We’re doing to the legal profession what has been done for years in manufacturing,” Garretson told the Cincinnati Business Courier, a sister publication, in 2007. “We’re creating an outsourcing option so law firms can focus on what they do best.”

Late last year, the Garretson Firm completed a $1 million investment in its technology platform, and it’s preparing to spend another $1 million on its systems this year.

The company recently hired Jeff Wolverton to head its operations and systems from the Charlotte office, freeing up Wolf to spend more time on new service offerings that would complement the firm’s core business.

“We’re investing into the growth that we know is out there,” Wolf says. “We have a terrific opportunity.”

QUICKINFO
GARRETSON FIRM
• Founded: 2003, with the Charlotte office opening in 2004
• HQ: Cincinnati
• Local operation: Handles the resolution of health-care litigation settlements, an area that has become the firm’s biggest and fastest- growing segment
• Employees: 100 companywide, including 45 in Charlotte