Rick Masters is Special Counsel to the National Center for Interstate Compacts (‘NCIC’), affiliated with the Council of State Governments (‘CSG’), providing legal guidance on the law and use of interstate compacts, their application and enforcement and bill drafting guidance in conjunction with the various NCIC compact projects. He has been a primary drafter of many compacts including all of the multi-state licensure compacts for the professions of Nursing, Medicine, Physical Therapy, Emergency Medical Services and Psychology. Rick also provides legal counsel to the interstate compact administrative agencies created by each of these professional licensure compacts and also provides legal advice, governance training and assessments to a variety of compact governing boards and agencies, including the 2019 Legal Assessment of the Great Lakes Compact Commission. He has also served as counsel of record for many interstate compact agencies in litigation to enforce the provisions of the compacts as well as defend these compact agencies in lawsuits filed against them. He has also prepared amicus briefs in support of interstate compact agencies filed before in both federal and state appellate courts and in five (5) State Supreme Courts.  

Rick frequently testifies before state legislatures about compact legislation and has provided testimony to the U.S. Congress several times concerning the use of interstate compacts for such purposes as prescription drug monitoring and in 2019 was invited to testify before the Sub-Committee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the House Judiciary Committee about interstate occupational licensure compacts to facilitate multi-state practice across state lines and as a means of ameliorating anti-trust liability for licensure boards while protecting public safety. Rick also provided guidance to the Federal Trade Commission concerning the use of interstate compacts as a means of streamlining occupational licensing across state lines at the FTC’s Economic Liberty Task Force Roundtable. His comments and published work on interstate compacts were relied upon in the FTC White Paper “Options to Enhance Occupational License Portability” published in September 2018. He is also a member of the panel of experts to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Licensure Learning Consortium in a three (3) year project to: 1) ensure existing and new licensing requirements don’t create unnecessary barriers to employment and 2) improve license portability for occupations across state lines. At the invitation of the Center on Telehealth Rick recently jointly led a webinar discussion with White House Special Assistant to the President James Redstone in a discussion on the use of health professional occupational licensure compacts and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact to alleviate shortages physicians, nurses and other providers of health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rick continues to engage in extensive research and writing in the field of interstate compacts including co-authoring the largest compilation of laws and commentary on the subject published by the American Bar Association in 2016 entitled The Evolving Law and Use of Interstate Compacts 2nd Edition. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Brandeis School of Law of the University of Louisville and served as a Kentucky Assistant Attorney General after which he was General Counsel to CSG. He also served a four (4) year term as a member of the Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission. He is also is of counsel to the Louisville law firm of Michener Mullins & Arrington, where he concentrates on issues arising under the state and federal Constitutions, including those arising in the context of governmental regulations pertaining to licensing, land use and other property rights and employment discrimination under Title VII and related claims and contract related issues as well as non-profit and governmental organizations and best practices.

Our Team