Donna Fraiche

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Donna D. Fraiche is currently Senior Counsel and member of the health care and public policy practice group and opened the New Orleans and Baton Rouge offices of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz (“BDBCB”). She formerly chaired its Nominating Committee and Women’s Initiative Committee. She currently serves as a Chair of the Governance and Nominating and Compensation Committees and on the Boards of three publicly traded stock exchange listed companies, including a national senior living health care company. She began in the private practice of law in 1975 and has continuously handled primarily matters and controversies arising out of the health care arena and has handled complex public policy issues.

Ms. Fraiche is currently on the American Hospital Association’s Committee on Governance representing Woman’s Hospital as trustee and working on national health care public policy and advocacy. Ms. Fraiche was named New Orleans Health Care Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America in 2011. She is the former Chair of the Louisiana Health Care Commission and served on the Louisiana Legislature’s Task Force on the Working Uninsured. She is Chair of the Board of Woman’s Hospital. She served as the first woman president of the American Health Lawyers Association (“AHLA”) and was chosen for the first class of Fellows of the AHLA. She presented at the AHLA’s 2011 Medicaid Institute, chaired its first Medical Staff Legal Issues Conference and was honored by AHLA in 2017 by being featured in an oral history video of the organization.
 

Ms. Fraiche was appointed the Honorary Consul-General of Japan for New Orleans in 2008 and re-appointed in 2013.

Ms. Fraiche’s practice has been concentrated in the representation of both medical licensed professionals and health systems in matters ranging from peer review, credentialing, disciplinary hearings, and transactions to general advice on litigation, regulatory proceedings as well as strategic development. She has served as counsel on numerous hearings and on all sides of issues. She has completed the AHLA Dispute Resolution Course Mediating Health Care Controversies.

Ms. Fraiche has been selected for inclusion in Chambers as an outstanding Health Care attorney and as a Louisiana Super Lawyer for the past decade. She was named a top lawyer in Government Relations and Health Care by New Orleans Magazine for a number of years. In 2000, she spoke at the ABA Healthlaw Section Meeting in London. She served on The Joint Commission’s Leadership Accountabilities Task Force and presented at the National Conference on Quality and Safety in Health Care. Nightingale’s Healthcare News named her as one of ten Outstanding Hospital Lawyers in the United States in 2005 and as an Outstanding Physician Fraud and Compliance Lawyer in 2009.

Ms. Fraiche’s work in the field of Disaster Recovery began through a gubernatorial appointment and a charter member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, where she chaired its Long Term Community Planning effort, and served on its Health Care Committee and Health Care Redesign Collaborative. She served as Chair of the Louisiana Office of State Planning Task Force. She appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and testified during a hearing entitled, “GAO’s Analysis of the Gulf Coast Recovery.” She appeared as a panelist on the LPB-TV series Louisiana Public Square entitled “Health Care Reform: A Louisiana Perspective” and at The Justice Revius O. Ortique, Jr. Symposium on Law, Politics, Civil Rights, and Justice at Southern University Law Center on the topic of “Health of a Nation: Is Health Insurance a Right or a Privilege” and “If Health Care is a Legal Right, How Will it be Legally Enforced?” Ms. Fraiche has appeared before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress testifying at a hearing entitled “Structure of the Hospital Industry in the 21st Century.”

She is President of the Louisiana Supreme Court Historical Society and served as President of the Louisiana Bar Foundation and Louisiana Appleseed. She is the President and Chair of the Board of the Louisiana chapter of the International Women’s Forum. She is on the Boards of St. Andrew’s Village; the Japanese Garden Foundation; and Baton Rouge Area Foundation, where she serves as Secretary, on the Strategic Planning Committee and Investment Committee. She is currently a member of the Plan of Government Committee of Baton Rouge City Parish to advise on re-writing the governance charter.
 

Ms. Fraiche was Chair of the Board of Trustees of Loyola University in New Orleans and delivered the commencement address at the Law School. She served as President of the World Trade Center, Chair of the Board of the New Orleans Regional Medical Center, and was on the adjunct faculty of Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Administration as a preceptor for the residency program in health systems management. She has been a guest speaker on health law topics at the LSU Law Center. She served as Chair of the Legal Committee of the United Way; as a charter founder of the Women’s Leadership Initiative and on its nominating committee.
 

In 2017, she received the Louisiana Bar Foundation’s Distinguished Attorney award. She has also received the Esprit de Femme Award from the Louisiana State University Women’s Center and the Weiss Award from the New Orleans Council for Community and Justice (NOCCJ). She was recognized by the Louisiana State Bar Association with its Friend of Pro Bono Award. The Baton Rouge Business Report designated her as an Influential Women in Business. She received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Louisiana Chapter of the American Planners Association; the Louisiana Association of Non-profit Organizations’ Heroine Award; and was inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame. Loyola University New Orleans presented her with its Integritas Vitae award, the University’s highest honor and she received the St. Philippine Duchesne award from the Academy of the Sacred Heart.

Other awards include Family Service of Greater New Orleans’ 10 Most Outstanding People; the New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce’s highest honor as Vice Chair for Public Policy; the Gillis Long Public Service Award from Loyola University College of Law; the prestigious Order of the Mark of the World Trade Center; the President’s Award from the New Orleans Bar Association. She is a graduate of the Council for a Better Louisiana’s 2005 Leadership Louisiana program. She was chosen as 2005 Volunteer Activist by the St. Elizabeth Guild and a recipient of Dress for Success and the Young Leadership Council’s Role Model award.

Ms. Fraiche is married to a Physician leader, Dr. John F. Fraiche, with two physician children and a number of grandchildren.