In 15 years of practicing law, James William Teevans carved a niche as an expert in helping rural communities find and keep physicians and health care.
“He was one of those lawyers that actually called his clients back,” said his companion, Michael Collier. Mr. Teevans helped small communities apply for government grants and petitioned immigration courts to admit foreign doctors willing to work in rural areas, Collier said.
He was “probably the most knowledgeable person in the country on the specific legal challenges that rural communities face in assuring ongoing access to health-care services,” said Steven Rosenberg, who hired Mr. Teevans as general counsel at Rosenberg and Associates, a health-care consulting firm in Oakland, Calif.
Mr. Teevans, 40, was born in Chicago and raised in Des Plaines. He died of melanoma Monday, March 8, in his Oakland home.
A 1981 graduate of Maine West High School, he received a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University Chicago in 1985 and a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1988.
He started at Chicago’s Gardner, Carton & Douglas, where he worked on several cases involving anti-trust issues and rural medical care.
In one prominent case, he successfully defended the 1989 merger of two hospitals in Ukiah, Calif. The Federal Trade Commission had opposed the union on grounds that it reduced competition. However, the outcome allowed “the merging of two very small hospitals so they did not compete in a medical arms race,” said Rosenberg, an expert witness in the case.
At the end of the case, Mr. Teevans agreed to work for Rosenberg’s firm, which led him to move to Oakland in 1992.
Mr. Teevans “came back to Chicago three times a year: for his mother’s birthday, to celebrate his birthday and during the summer,” Collier said. “He was extremely close to his family.”
“He was always there to help any family member with advice in life and legal issues,” said his brother, John, a commander with the Wheeling Police Department.
When their youngest sister, Janet, died of cancer nearly 20 years ago, Mr. Teevans “was always the one that kept us going. He was very uplifting,” his brother said.
Other survivors include his parents, Robert and Nancy; two sisters, Debra Kram and Susan Artarian; and a step-grandfather, Pat Stabile.
Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday in the Oehler Funeral Home, 2099 Miner St., Des Plaines. Prayers will be said at 10:15 a.m. Saturday in the funeral home, followed by an 11 a.m. mass in St. Emily’s Church, 1400 E. Central Rd., Mt. Prospect.
