Erin Darling currently serves as Associate Vice President and Counsel, Federal Policy for Merck. In this role, Erin is responsible for leading the company’s US policy team, which develops and implements advocacy and policy strategies on federal health care legislative and regulatory issues. She works extensively on Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal program coverage and payment issues, health care reform, transparency, issues related to the infectious disease and oncology franchises, and various other health care issues.
Before coming to Merck in 2007, Erin worked in private practice as a health care lawyer with two Washington, D.C. law firms. During her time in private practice, Erin focused on developing and implementing regulatory and legislative strategies to support and advance the interests of a diverse set of clients on a wide range of legal and policy issues. In particular, she focused on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and compliance, HIPAA, human subject protection and other state and federal privacy issues, federal and state fraud and abuse compliance, health care information technology initiatives, and FDA regulation. She also served as general counsel to the American Clinical Laboratory Association and Acting Executive Director of the Renal Leadership Council, a coalition of the national’s largest dialysis facilities.
Erin has also spent time on pro bono legal and policy matters, including representing and counseling victims of domestic abuse in court proceedings for restraining orders, representing clients in Social Security disability, housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and custody matters, and working with Bread for the City, a large DC community organization that provides food, clothing, medical care, and legal and social services to low-income residents. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Inn at NIH.
Erin has a J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in Political Science With Distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and North Carolina.
