Press Release  AG Healey Appoints New Heads of Health Care Division, Child and Youth Protection Unit

Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey today announced two new leadership appointments to teams focused on improving health care and advocating for children and youth in Massachusetts.

AG Healey has appointed Eric Gold as the new Chief of the Health Care Division. Gold will oversee a team that focuses on improving health care access and affordability for all Massachusetts residents. Abigail Taylor has been appointed as Director of the AG’s Child and Youth Protection Unit, focusing on improving opportunities and outcomes for children and youth in the state.

Gold, a Newton resident, joined the AG’s Health Care Division in 2012 as an Assistant Attorney General and has served as the Deputy Chief of the Division since January 2016. Prior to joining the AG’s Office, Gold was a litigator at Greenberg Traurig in Boston from 2008 to 2012, where he handled product liability claims, class actions, and securities suits in state and federal courts. He litigated at Sidley Austin in New York and Chicago between 2003 and 2008, representing pharmaceutical companies in complex multi-district litigation. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Washington University School of Law.

“Eric is an invaluable leader of our health care team who will bring deep knowledge and experience to heading the Health Care Division,” said AG Healey. “Eric has used his skills to shape our office’s ongoing work to address the opiate epidemic and I am thrilled that he has accepted this new position.”

As Division Chief, Gold will oversee a team of attorneys, mediators, and other staff whose primary role is to advocate for and enforce Massachusetts laws to protect health care consumers, promote affordability and accessibility and improve the overall effectiveness of the health care system. The Division also helps consumers understand their health care rights and mediates consumer disputes with health care payers and providers.

Taylor, who resides in Somerville, has served as Assistant Attorney General in the AG’s Child and Youth Protection Unit since its inception in 2015. Prior to joining the office, Taylor served as a Trial Attorney in the Criminal Fraud Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2011 to 2015, where she prosecuted dozens of defendants for their participation in health care fraud schemes amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. From 2008 to 2011, she served as executive director of iCivics Inc., growing a small academic project to become the leading national resource for social studies games and online civics curriculum. Taylor holds degrees from Harvard Law School, George Washington University, and Yale University.

“Abby is a natural leader who has a proven track record of bringing together diverse stakeholders to make progress on issues affecting children,” said AG Healey. “I know she will effectively lead this unit in its important mission to protect and fight for the well-being of children and youth in our state.”

Effective October 1, Taylor will succeed Judge Gail Garinger, who is transitioning into retirement following an esteemed career as the first Director of the AG’s Child and Youth Protection Unit, the first Child Advocate for Massachusetts, and a juvenile court judge.

AG Healey created a first-of-its-kind Child and Youth Protection Unit in 2015, which uses the unique position and expertise of the AG’s Office to advance initiatives fostering enhanced protections and positive outcomes for children and youth in Massachusetts. Taylor will lead the Unit in legal advocacy, programming and training efforts, and partnerships with state and local agencies and courts to improve protections and services for the state’s youngest residents.

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