Steve Clifton

Deputy General Counsel

Steven E. Clifton, the Deputy General Counsel for Health Affairs and Research, is an experienced health care attorney and advisor.

As lead counsel for UK HealthCare, Steve provides proactive legal guidance and assistance to the Executive Vice President - Health Affairs and UK HealthCare's senior executive leadership team, and to UK’s highly regarded integrated academic medical center and all related operations and University colleges.  Before assuming his present position in 2018, Steve spent more than twenty-five years representing publicly traded health care companies as well as a Kentucky not-for-profit hospital system. 

Immediately prior to joining UK, Steve was EVP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Team Health Holdings, Inc. (TMH) in Knoxville, Tennessee, and SVP and General Counsel for Health Management Associates, Inc. (HMA) in Naples, Florida.   Prior to that, he spent 18 years at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in Nashville, Tennessee as VP – Legal Operations.  He began his career in Louisville, Kentucky with Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs, and Norton Healthcare f/k/a Alliant Health System.  Steve has expertise in regulatory compliance, the federal anti-kickback statute, Stark II, EMTALA, HIPAA, mergers and acquisitions, academic medical centers, medical staffs, managed care, physician employment, government investigations, antitrust, real estate, clinical research, and corporate governance.

A native of Kentucky, Steve received his undergraduate degree from Western Kentucky University and his law degree from the University of Kentucky.

He is married to Sharon Marshall Clifton and has two children, Marshall and Sarah.

B.A., Western Kentucky University

J.D., University of Kentucky College of Law