April A. Goff
Informed by her in-house experience, April’s business-forward approach incorporates the law and the competing voices of employees, customers, shareholders, regulators, and members of the public.
April Goff counsels clients on data privacy and security, employee benefits, and labor and employment. For more than 20 years, April has advised healthcare providers and technology companies on all manner of clinical privacy, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the diverse technologies used in the growing telehealth, medical device, and pharmaceutical fulfillment industries. She counsels clients regarding healthcare app development, “smart” durable medical equipment devices with embedded technology, business associate agreements, HIPAA privacy and security policies and procedures, breach notification, and employee training. She also assists with government investigations, as well as advising on electronic medical record systems and issues concerning data storage, cloud computing, cyber risk insurance, peer review and facility accreditation rules, and compliance with state laws. She provides guidance on the development of products and services using artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technologies in healthcare.
April evaluates data monetization, consumer tracking, and consumer rewards programs; provides executive-level training to boards of directors regarding the pressing need for increasing cybersecurity and data privacy resources; and implements policies to assess, document, and mitigate physical, technical, and administrative risks to the privacy and integrity of a company’s patient, customer, and employee data.
April reviews cyber policy riders with insurance brokers and provides attorney-client privileged coordination with third-party vendors. These include public relations entities, data forensics, code reviewers, endpoint protection, and threat intelligence and response providers at all stages of incident response, from preparation through post-debriefing.
Through her guidance on employee benefits plans and human resource policies, April helps clients to attract and retain the best talent and address every legal challenge along the way. Her experience enables her to negotiate the full life cycle of employment for C-suite and other high-level executives, from negotiating employment agreement terms and coordinating governmental filings to preparing termination agreements and designing severance packages.
Representing a breadth of public and private companies, April provides sophisticated counsel on healthcare, 401(k), profit-sharing, pension, and other high-value benefits programs. She works with employer group health plans, including both insured and self-funded group health plans, high-deductible health plans, cafeteria plans, health savings accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, flexible spending accounts, wellness programs, and employee assistance programs. April also serves a key partner for her clients in the traditional labor space—mitigating the risk of a collectively bargained workforce—from union avoidance and containment strategies through negotiation of collectively bargained agreements and addressing grievances.
Areas of focus
Industries
Services
Education & Credentials
Education
- St. Thomas University College of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, Editor-In-Chief, St. Thomas Law Review, 2003
- Baylor University, M.B.A., 2000
- Tarleton State University, B.B.A., magna cum laude, 1998
Bar and Court Admissions
-
Illinois
-
Texas
Related Employment
- J. C. Penney Corporation, Inc., Plano, TX, Senior Counsel, Benefits, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy, 2016-2019
- Warner Norcross & Judd LLP, Grand Rapids, MI, Senior Counsel, Employee Benefits, 2010-2016
- Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Chicago, IL, Senior Associate, Employee Benefits, 2007-2010
- Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP (now Dentons), Kansas City, MO, Associate, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, 2005-2007
- Holland & Knight LLP, Miami, FL, Associate, ERISA, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, 2003-2005
Professional Recognition
Listed in The Best Lawyers in America: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, 2024
Listed in Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Cyber Lawyers, 2024
Named a Top 10 30-Something In-House Attorney in the World by the Association of Corporate Counsel, 2019
Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2012, 2015-2016
Impact
Professional Leadership
- Certified U.S. Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) through the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)
- Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council, 2019-2021
- American Bar Association
Real Property Trusts & Estates Division, Vice Chair, Employee Benefits Group, 2019-2021
Fiduciary Responsibility, Administration and Litigation, Co-chair, 2018-2019
Plan Transactions and Terminations, Vice-chair, 2017-2018 - American Bar Association, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Division, Vice Chair, Employee Benefits Group, 2020-2021
- Association of Corporate Counsel
Employment Labor Law Network (7,000+ members): Vice-chair, 2018-2019; Secretary, 2018; Co-chair ERISA Subcommittee, 2018
Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter (950 members): Board of Directors, 2018-2019; Women’s Initiative Chair, 2018-2019
Community Involvement
- Women’s Resource Center, Grand Rapids, MI, General Counsel, Chair, Board of Directors, and Governance Committee Advisor, 2012-2016
Insights
News
Professional Experience
Cybersecurity and Data Privacy
- Developed incident response plans across multinational public company clients covering over 50 individual departments, vendors, and internal stakeholders, resulting in special public recognition from a publicly traded company’s chief information security officer, chief technology officer, and chief executive officer for outstanding efforts.
- Designed, drafted, and negotiated thousands of data protection agreements, including review of vendor security questionnaires.
- Provided enterprisewide training on confidentiality and privacy and security, including to a number of entities subject to sectoral privacy laws such as HIPAA or GLBA.
- Provided routine oversight of incident response, including management of notification to Office of Civil Rights, state law regulators, and affected individuals for medical schools, hospital systems, and healthcare providers. Coordinated and oversaw third-party vendors providing ancillary services such as cyber insurers, public relations, code review, forensic data services, and threat modeling and assessment.
- Product design advice regarding the development of numerous healthcare technology apps and devices.
- Supported rollout of veterinary pharmacy clinics in retail context for multiple clients (representing both pharmacy providers and retail partners) including drafting and negotiating multiple agreements such as supply, pharmacy fulfillment, marketing, and licensing.
Benefits Administration
- Counseled Fortune 100 companies on design and administration of ERISA plans and developed cost-effective compliance strategies for employee benefits and executive compensation.
- Designed and managed client requests for proposals (RFPs) and negotiated multimillion-dollar contracts with plan vendors in both group health plan and retirement plan context.
- Negotiation of hundreds of pharmacy benefit management agreements.
- Advised companies on containing retiree healthcare costs in union and non-union environments. Designed wellness programs limiting medical expense outlay and led negotiations on collective bargaining agreements.
- Extensive experience with respect to crossover labor and employment issues inherent with various wellness program designs.
- Counseled clients on state-mandated health coverage, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), and HIPAA. Provided guidance during open enrollment and on comprehensive benefit plan administration.
- Assisted retail grocery and pharmacy chain with innovative primary care clinic rollout.
Labor & Employment
- Maintain significant traditional labor law experience regarding union avoidance, union containment, risk assessment, and collective bargaining agreement negotiation in the areas of aerospace, heavy equipment manufacturing, service, tool and die, automobile assembly and parts, etc.
- Develop a variety of employer policies relating to a wide span of compliance, including employee surveillance, monitoring, drafting of employee handbooks, evaluation of trade secret claims, and significant due diligence review of labor and employment compliance in M&A context.
- Counseled clients on a variety of employment, labor, and privacy laws with respect to COVID-19, including back-to-work scheduling, review of employee healthcare information, administration of vaccine clinics and well checks, and masking and vaccine mandates.
- Provided key partnership to pharmaceutical manufacturers on compliance issues, retention bonuses, and corporate sale.
- Addressed newly burgeoning issues with respect to AI used in employment context including automated decision-making technologies.