Ed. note: Daniel Tardiff will be speaking on the panel “Legal Tales From the Startup Side” at the MedCity INVEST conference at 5:15 p.m. on May 23 at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago. The panel is complimentary, but registration is required. A networking reception will follow the event. Click here to register for the panel and to learn more. 

Daniel Tardiff, who joined Thompson Coburn as a corporate healthcare partner in late 2022, jokingly calls himself a “reformed litigator.”

He’s a rare lawyer who has worked as a federal (civil) prosecutor, in litigation at a law firm, and as a general counsel before recently returning to private practice on the corporate side.

In a litigation role, he says, the job is often to “parachute in” to address a problem, as people are usually fighting over something that has already been broken. 

While an in-house or transactional practice will often involve these types of scenarios as well, it’s an area that carries more nuance.

“I’m a huge believer that my job is to assemble the best and the most accurate information, from which the right decision makers can make an informed, risk-based decision,” he says.

It’s a pursuit that can be rewarding. 

“You actually get to help build things, meaning do deals, close deals, help a business live, breathe, move, evolve on a daily basis.”

Here, Tardiff weighs in on a healthcare executive’s keys to success — and to avoiding the negative headlines (or, worse, the orange jumpsuit).

The Perils of Healthcare

Lawyers, Tardiff says, “have to meet clients where they’re at.” 

Throughout a corporation, everyone brings different experiences — not every CEO has faced litigation or been deposed; not every director has faced a government investigation. 

It’s a particularly fraught dynamic in healthcare, which, along with financial services, is a highly regulated industry. 

And many who come into healthcare without industry-specific experience are especially at risk of running afoul of the government. 

“If you’re not familiar with that landscape as a business leader, it can be very challenging to learn to navigate that environment,” he says, “to accomplish your commercial goals, but also avoid ending up on the front page of the Journal or in an orange jumpsuit.”

Not a Garage Startup

Tardiff does have the “general counsel of a startup” bullet on his resume. But his experience wasn’t exactly the cliche of building a new product out of a basement or toolshed. 

In the spring of 2017, Walgreens and Prime Therapeutics formed the predecessor of what is today known as AllianceRx Walgreens Pharmacy, and Tardiff was there from the beginning. 

The new venture’s executives didn’t have to worry about making payroll, per se, because it was still financially consolidated within Walgreens, distinguishing it from the “classic startup” narrative. 

But a lot of the other aspects were similar. 

“When we started, we were employees of the two parents, and then we severed those ties and employed our own workforce,” Tardiff says, “which meant standing up a lot of your own internal things like your own HR, benefits systems, IT, data security — the blocking and tackling-type stuff.”

Company Culture

One of the most critical steps a startup company can take is to define its mission and values — what it wants, who it wants to be, and how it wants to operate to get there, according to Tardiff.

“If you’re not thoughtful about what you’re building, you’re going to end up with God knows what, just the byproduct of happenstance,” he says. 

But it’s also important to remember that, in life, things rarely go according to plan — meaning patience and understanding are also critical virtues. 

He notes his work with the Walgreens startup, which was a first-of-its-kind venture for the company.

“At the beginning of the journey, it wasn’t certain that separating from two established cultures to form our own was going to work,” he says. “But ultimately I think we succeeded.”

Anticipating the Best

The mission of a startup is often deceptively simple: take an idea and build it out, drawing buy-in and growth. “Exactly how each start-up has a chance at success is subject to innumerable variables, placing a high premium on quality leaders to guide the journey,” according to Tardiff.

And even if you “hit a single and not a home run,” Tardiff says, being prepared for what happens next can be quite challenging.

“Life for start-ups is usually anything but linear. For example, the need to grow can emerge quicker than how you thought — even the day before — it was going to happen.” 

One “pillar of success” for startups, therefore, is being aware of all the resources required to grow a company — and having a blueprint for how to make them a reality.

Preparing for the Worst

Of course, even the best batters fail to get a base hit in the majority of plate appearances. 

For startups, Tardiff says, it’s also important to be knowledgeable about the changing circumstances in the event that a business operation ultimately goes south. 

“Businesses and business leaders can very quickly enter a world of insolvency risk that turns legal obligations around duties and normal business concepts almost on their head,” he says.

Fortunately, most entrepreneurs haven’t had this experience. But leaders of companies that are facing bankruptcy risk must be aware of these dynamics. 

“You can stub your toe very easily, and in some unwitting ways,” he adds. “When you’re in a bankruptcy world, sometimes what seems like common sense isn’t the right answer anymore.” 

“There is a lot more complexity than what I think most business leaders would be aware of. And it puts a healthy premium on really getting good, competent advisers to help you navigate those waters.”

 

Daniel Tardiff will be speaking on the panel “Legal Tales From the Startup Side” at the MedCity INVEST conference at 5:15 p.m. on May 23 at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago. The panel is complimentary, but registration is required. A complimentary networking reception will follow the event. Click here to register for the panel and to learn more.