Scott D. Hammer

Scott Hammer is one of the few attorneys in the country who focuses on the defense of mental health professionals in medical malpractice cases. Scott became well-known is this field through his work on psychiatric cases in the 1990s involving multiple personality disorder and repressed/false memories, including the famous Patricia Burgus case.

In his current practice, Scott handles malpractice cases arising from suicides, alleged boundary violations, adverse reactions to medications, and breach of confidentiality claims. He has extensive experience and frequently represents mental health professionals in licensure matters before the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and in ethics hearings before various professional associations’ ethics committees. He also provides counseling on risk management issues such as the duty to warn and has handled Medicare compliance audits as well.

As an authority in his field, Scott frequently presents risk management lectures to professional organizations, mental health institutions and graduate students in the field of psychiatric counseling, and he has held leadership positions on the Mental Health Law Committees of the Illinois State and Chicago Bar Associations.