Craig Kent, the former CEO of the University of Virginia's Health System, is suing a group of lawyers for about $34 million in damages, according to a defamation suit filed in Albemarle County Circuit Court this week. Kent - a defendant in an ongoing federal lawsuit that accuses him and other former UVA Health leaders of putting patients at risk to boost profits - is now firing back with a lawsuit of his own. In the 50-page complaint, Kent's attorneys allege that a group of lawyers launched a 'defamatory campaign to oust him from his position' as CEO. The defendants are the same attorneys leading the ongoing federal suit against Kent: Louisiana-based law firm Jones Swanson Huddell LLC, and individual lawyers Gladstone Jones, Lynn Swanson, and Charlottesville-based attorney Les Bowers. The defamation claim comes almost exactly one year after Kent resigned in the midst of an external investigation into a letter of 'no confidence' in Kent and former UVA Medical School Dean Melina Kibbe, which was signed by 128 physicians in September 2024.
In a social media landscape shaped by hashtags, algorithms, and viral posts, nurse leaders must decide: Will they let the narrative spiral, or can they adapt and join the conversation?
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