Meet Sara

Sara Sykes is an associate in Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd’s Greenville office, where she represents healthcare providers and corporate clients.

Sara’s practice is primarily devoted to healthcare transactions and regulatory compliance. She provides strategic, comprehensive counsel to hospitals, long-term care facilities, continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), private practices and practitioners across South Carolina. Her transactional experience includes:

• •  Representing clients with the formation and restructuring of practitioner-owned practices and      management services organizations (MSOs)
• •  Advising healthcare clients on acquisitions and transactions involving physician practices and healthcare facilities, such as urgent care centers, physical therapy clinics and community residential care facilities, and including regulatory transfer arrangements related to licensure of those facilities
• •  Serving as regulatory counsel to several large CCRCs, advising on licensing compliance and the development of resident contract systems
• •  Reviewing and negotiating physician employment agreements and professional services agreements
• •  Developing non-clinical practice policies, procedures and operational forms for healthcare providers and facilities
• •  Providing advice and counsel on HIPAA compliance, including privacy and security requirements for healthcare entities
• •  Drafting and negotiating service agreements between long-term care facilities, ambulatory surgery centers, hospitals and physician groups
• •  Counseling cash-pay healthcare practices, including concierge medicine practices and medical spas, on regulatory and operational considerations
• •  Advising healthcare professionals on professional licensing requirements and representing clients in responding to LLR complaints

Sara began her practice representing clients in complex litigation, including trade secret disputes, construction defects and high-stakes contract matters. She has guided clients through state and federal government investigations and inquiries, particularly those involving the False Claims Act, Stark Law, and Anti-Kickback Statute. She also has experience representing healthcare practitioners in professional licensing disputes and advising on medical staff privileging matters.
 
Sara’s background as both a litigator and a transactional healthcare attorney enables her to anticipate risk, structure transactions thoughtfully and help clients avoid or efficiently resolve disputes before they escalate.
 
While in law school, Sara served as Production Editor of the American Bar Association Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Journal, Secretary of the Health Law Society, and a member of the Student Bar Association.
 
Sara co-leads the firm’s recruitment committee and summer law clerk program for the Greenville office.

• University of South Carolina, J.D., cum laude, 2021
• Illinois State University, B.S., summa cum laude, 2018
• Illinois State University, Paralegal Certificate, 2018

• South Carolina, 2021
• U.S. District Court, South Carolina, 2023

• Greenville Business Magazine “Legal Elite of the Upstate” Business Litigation (2024) and Health Care Law (2024-2025)
• Order of the Wig and Robe
• CALI Award Recipient: Insurance Law

• South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers Division
• Greenville County Bar Association

• “South Carolina Boards of Medical Examiners, Nursing and Pharmacy Issue Joint Advisory Opinion on Retail IV Therapy Businesses,” HSB Blog, September 12, 2023
• “Constitutional Challenges: Who Gets to Do What to Whom and What Can the Courts Do About It?” SC Upstate Paralegal Association Seminar, Greenville, SC, October 21, 2022