John O. Chesley is a partner with the San Francisco office of Ropes & Gray, where he has been a member of the health care practice group since 1985. For over 30 years, he has focused on meeting the needs of clients in complex transactions and challenging regulatory contexts.
Mr. Chesley blends transactional skills with knowledge of tax-exempt organizational law, regulatory issues and securities law. With a broad practice, Mr. Chesley has served as lead transaction counsel in nonprofit mergers and affiliations (including a major provider-insurer affiliation noted by Modern Healthcare, the Wall Street Journal and others as a "game changer"), as outside general counsel to a health care system, and as borrower's counsel and underwriter's counsel on numerous higher education, health care and other 501(c)(3) financings. He advises a leading university on capital finance matters and counsels boards on governance matters. His practice ranges from AAA-rated institutions to distressed credits, with a particular emphasis on complex structuring and strategic relationships at the intersection of industry change.
Mr. Chesley received his JD from Northeastern University School of Law and his AB, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. He is admitted to practice in California and Massachusetts.
Mr. Chesley is a co-author of Bloomberg BNA's Health Law & Business Series Portfolio 2100, Health Law Mergers & Acquisitions: The Transactional Perspective, 2nd edition.