Medical Ethics and Legal Medicine

Bill Hinnant, Principal in the firm Medicolegal Consultants, LLC, is a Urologist and Health Care Attorney admitted to the South Carolina trial and appellate courts, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. His legal practice focuses on medical malpractice, qui tam litigation, administrative health law, white collar crime, drug matters, insurance law, healthcare business and transactions, workers compensation and social security disability. His medical interests include infertility, reproductive endocrinology, oncology, voiding dysfunction, renovascular disease and general urology. He is a long-term member of his state’s Federal Criminal Justice Act Attorney Panel with expertise in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

Hinnant is Past President and Counsel of the American College of Legal Medicine.  He has authored amicus briefs and regulatory comments for national medical organizations.  He has advised or represented over 250 physicians in licensing, peer review and credentialing matters. He is active in assisting physicians and attorneys with substance abuse and addiction and is Membership Chair for the World Association for Medical Law.  He is an Adjunct Assoc. Professor of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University, an Instructor in Health Law at Limestone College and has served as a Final Moot Court Judge twice at the National Health Law Moot Court Competition held at the Southern Indiana University College of Law.

Hinnant and his wife, Virginia, have four adult children and two grandchildren.  They enjoy sports, travel, music, theater, travel and cooking.  They attend Renaissance Weekend, an ideas think tank established by Bill and Hilary Clinton, on an annual basis.

Dr. Matthias I. Okoye is a physician, lawyer, and a forensic expert. In 2005, he was nominated as one of the top 50 minority scientists in U.S.A. He has performed and supervised over 15,000 autopsies and investigated and certified over 20,000 deaths during his career. He has been consulted world-wide in over 5,000 cases by prosecutors, defense lawyers and law enforcement agencies in the U.S.A. and overseas. He has testified in the U.S. in several state and federal courts and foreign jurisdictions as an expert in the fields of forensic medicine and pathology, legal medicine, pharmaceutical science, and toxicology. He has assisted academic institutions in developing and setting up undergraduate and graduate forensic science programs in several U.S. and overseas universities.

Dr. Okoye is also the director of the Nebraska Institute of Forensic Sciences, Inc., and Associated Pathologists of Nebraska, P.C. In addition, he is a clinical professor of forensic pathology at Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska and clinical professor of forensic medicine and pathology at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Kansas City, Missouri. He is also an adjunct and visiting professor of forensic medicine and pathology at several universities abroad. He was the former Chief Medical Examiner for Washington, D.C. and a clinical professor of forensic pathology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Georgetown University School of Medicine and professorial lecturer in forensic pathology at Howard University College of Medicine from 1989-1991.

He is a consultant forensic pathologist with the State of Nebraska’s Office of the Attorney General, and serves as the coroner’s physician and forensic pathologist for several counties in Nebraska and Kansas. Dr. Okoye is also an attending pathologist at Lincoln’s Bryan Medical Center and CHI-St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center. In addition, he is the founding principal of the Law Firm of Okoye & Associates, Lincoln, Nebraska.

He received dual medical degrees (Summa Cum Laude) from both the Universities of Lagos College of Medicine, Lagos, Nigeria and the British Conjoint Board, U.K. in 1974 before serving as a senior house officer in surgery and pathology for the Nigerian Ministry of Health. He was a junior fellow in pathology at King’s College, University of Cambridge, U.K. in 1972. In 1976, he immigrated to the United States and undertook intensive residencies in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas and also graduate training in pharmaceutical science/toxicology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He also took a residency in forensic pathology at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland.

Dr. Okoye also earned both a Master of Science degree in pharmaceutical science (toxicology) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Juris doctorate degree from the Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Pathology and the American Board of Legal Medicine.

He is a member of the State Bar of Pennsylvania and is also admitted to practice in several Federal District Courts, Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the American College of Legal Medicine for several years, and currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine, member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Academy of Legal Medicine, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

Dr. Okoye has been a member of the Academy of Forensic Sciences, National Association of Medical Examiners, and a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists. He has also lectured and published extensively in forensic medicine and pathology, forensic toxicology, and legal medicine. He has appeared on CNN, ABC News, and CBS News to discuss some high profile cases. He has been requested by several foreign governments to conduct thorough medico-legal death investigations in some controversial high profile deaths. He is a visiting professor in forensic sciences at various Universities in the U.S. and overseas.