PHYSICIAN CONTRACT REVIEW

You’ve worked hard to get here. Don’t leave your career to chance.

We take the stress out of considering a new position so that you’re comfortable signing on the dotted line on a fully informed basis.

Your employer uses a healthcare law firm, and you should, too. Weavil Law was founded to make the same expertise accessible to individual physicians. We know how to negotiate with practices because we represent them, too.

As physician agreement
experts, we understand physicians because they’re our friends and family.
We get it.

From residents to med staff chiefs, we’ve lived it at the dinner table & with our clients.


Established in 2013, we’ve helped hundreds of physicians across the US in nearly every specialty and subspecialty.

We get it. We speak your language.

When you mention block time, Q2 call, nighthawk shifts, timely charting, or CPT codes, we know what you’re talking about and what it means for your practice and your life. When you say you’ll be required to see 25-28 patients a day, we know not only will your day be hectic, you’ll be up all night catching up on notes. Every night.

Guide to Physician Contracts 

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Start Your New Role With Confidence.

We will help you review, understand, and negotiate your contract. We know what’s normal and what’s not, and how that differs across specialty and context.

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Scott Weavil founded Weavil Law in 2013. His interest in representing physicians stems from watching his wife, an OBGYN, and her friends from residency deal with horrible contract terms and their real-life implications.

Scott lives in California. He enjoys the outdoors and loves exploring with his daughter, Dottie, 5, and skiing with his wife, Mandi.

My cell phone rang.  In my office, I was finishing up for the evening. It was early June 2012, and I was tying up loose ends getting ready to leave my job as a mergers and acquisitions attorney in New York.  My wife, Mandi, had matched with a fellowship program in California, and we were preparing to go West.  We were excited for the change.  Her friends from residency were also excited: Most were about to graduate and take their first jobs as attendings.  One of them, Emily,* was on the line.

When I answered, Emily excitedly told me about an offer she had from the perfect practice.  It was back home in Indiana near her mom and sister. Although a private practice, it was affiliated with an academic hospital, so she’d have resident contact.  It offered a great salary, and, overall, seemed like the perfect fit.  She wanted to know if I’d review the contract they had sent her. I told her that I wasn’t an expert, but I’d be happy to take a look.

A few days later, an email from Emily popped up. It was the contract.  In the email, Emily told me it was basically a done deal, but she wanted me to review it just in case.

I started reading. This was my first physician employment agreement. The contract started out fine. Eventually, I got to a clause saying that Emily could be terminated at any time for any or no reason.  Termination at will is fairly standard, so I kept reading after adding it to my notes for Emily. Then I got to something odd.  The contract went on to provide that if the practice terminated her, even for no reason, Emily would have to reimburse the practice for all of her past compensation. In a worst-case scenario, she could be terminated the day before the contract expired, and the practice would essentially have gotten her to work for free for three years!

That seemed unfair and exploitative, and I told Emily so.  It went way beyond an employer shading terms in its own interest.  This seemed so bad, I told Emily she should consider not accepting the offer. In my mind, any group that would even attempt to get a physician to work for them on those terms probably wasn’t a practice she wanted to work for. But, I reiterated to Emily, I wasn’t an expert.

Emily was excited about the offer, though, and, after negotiating a few changes – including eliminating the offending term – she signed the contract. Unfortunately, the dream job eventually turned into a nightmare, culminating in Emily making just 24% of her starting salary the first year she went off guarantee.  I felt like I had let her down by not adequately stressing the importance of the contract enough, including the likely implication from some of the terms that this wasn’t going to be a good group to join.

While Emily was struggling to escape her first job, I was in California.  My wife had finished her fellowship and had accepted an offer in California. Occasionally, Emily’s travails would come up. I asked my wife about how her other friends from residency were doing, expecting to find out that Emily’s experience was something of an outlier. I was surprised to hear that out of her OB/GYN residency class, one doctor had matched with a horrible fellowship, one worked for about two months before she stopped getting paychecks (the practice turned out to be bankrupt), and one was taking 75% of her group’s call, including almost all the weekends and holidays.  Add Emily to the mix, and the success rate wasn’t high for physicians in their first positions.

I decided that a practice helping physicians might be something for me to explore. There definitely was a need. Physicians don’t just need a lawyer that understands contract terms. They need an advisor who understands their practice and their compensation – their lives.  That’s when I decided to start a practice focused on helping physicians in employment negotiations.

As a physician, you’re there to give your patients the best possible outcome. The work doesn’t end with medical school and residency.  That’s only the beginning.  You work extremely hard in the office, the OR, and everywhere else your practice takes you.  And that’s not even counting all the nights, weekends, and holidays you spend on call.  As an attorney, I’m here to ensure you’re protected and that hard work is rewarded. You’ve earned it.

*This situation is based on the experience of a friend, an OB/GYN. Names and other identifying details have been changed to protect her privacy, but the events happened as described.