The Virginia-based firm Clare Locke claims on its website to be “dedicated to litigating complex defamation matters and representing clients facing high-profile reputational attacks.”

On January 7, a plastic surgeon named Elisabeth Potter posted a video of herself on Instagram claiming that UnitedHealthcare called her mid-surgery and asked her to justify an in-patient stay for a woman who has breast cancer and needed a surgical procedure to treat it. Potter then claimed that the insurer denied the patient an overnight stay and threatened her with legal action for her posts.

She included what appeared to be screengrabs of the letter from Clare Locke, dated January 13. “We are writing to demand your correct your knowingly false, misleading, and defamatory posts regarding UnitedHealthcare,” it reads. The lawyers claim she made an error and that is why the insurer reached out, and that it would never have asked or expected her to step out mid-surgery. Clare Locke asked that she post a public apology and retract her accusations.

UnitedHealth contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission about a since-deleted post by billionaire Bill Ackman. “I would not be surprised to find that the company’s profitability is massively overstated due to its denial of medically necessary procedures and patient care,” Ackman had claimed. UnitedHealth shares fell by 4.3% the next day.

Source: FORTUNE