As lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act continue to fly, Crowell & Moring is bringing in Teresa Miller, who spent six years overseeing state and federal aspects of the health insurance exchanges. She helped implement ACA as Oregon's top insurance regulator and most recently as acting director of the State Exchanges Group and the Oversight Group at HHS. We snapped her on the terrace at 1001 Penn Ave, where she joins the firm's healthcare group as a partner.

"I don't think any of us really expected" the DC Circuit's decision on Halbig, a high-profile case about ACA insurance subsidies, she says. The ACA really needs the three pillars—the mandate, guaranteed issue, and subsidies—if one is taken out, that'll have a "huge impact." From a policy perspective, an interesting conversation may then take place about how to define (or redefine) the state-based exchange, and whether it's possible to have a state-based exchange on a federal platform.