PROGRAM OVERVIEW

In the Health Law Concentration, students learn the law and skills needed to represent individual and institutional clients, such as hospitals, in a wide variety of litigation and non-litigation settings related to health care access, health care quality, and the practice of medicine. Students learn relevant practical skills in the Concentration classroom component through role-playing exercises and simulations, as well as in their externship placements and during weekly rounds discussions.

Highlights of Health Law Concentration

• Interviewing and counseling a client about advance health care directives and drafting a health care proxy and living will for that client
• Representing a client in an administrative hearing to recover wrongfully denied Medicaid benefits
• Drafting comments on a set of legislative proposals to reduce Medicaid spending without reducing the quality of care
• Drafting a letter to advise a client whether she has a claim against a health care provider for disclosing her HIV status to a prospective employer
• Drafting an interoffice memo analyzing whether a patient injured during a medical procedure can bring a successful medical malpractice claim against the doctor and hospital
• Interning at a legal organization, law firm, or government agency that focuses on an area of health law, such as mental health law, HIV, medical malpractice, or Medicaid and Medicare rights, or focuses on particular lawyering skills, such as trial practice, legal writing, legislative advocacy, or advising an institutional client (such as a hospital) of particular interest to the student

CLASSROOM COMPONENT: THE LAW AND POLICY SEMINAR

The Health Law and Policy Seminar examines how the Constitution, statutes and the common law determine access to health care, regulate the quality of patient care and resolve disputes among doctors, hospitals, and patients.

Seminar coverage includes:

• Medicaid, Medicare and other government programs guaranteeing access to medical care
• Public policy and theoretical issues related to reforming the U.S. health care system
• Regulation of the quality of health care, including medical malpractice and professional licensing and discipline
• Patients’ rights and bioethical issues, including informed consent, confidentiality, the right to die, physician-assisted suicide, reproductive rights, assisted reproduction, and the rationing of high-cost procedures
• Federal and state regulation of private health insurance and managed care organizations
• The role of professionals, both doctors and lawyers, in our society

EXTERNSHIP PLACEMENTS

Students select from a variety of placements that concentrate on a range of health law-related lawyering skills, such as trial practice, legal research and writing, client interviewing and counseling, class action litigation, motion practice, community education, document drafting, appellate advocacy, and public policy and legislative advocacy.

Placements include:

• Legal organizations that represent individuals to uphold health care rights and/or bring impact litigation related to health care issues
• Law firms that handle plaintiffs’ medical malpractice cases and represent patients and/or doctors in litigation against insurance companies and managed care providers
• Government agencies that regulate health care institutions and providers
• Hospital in-house counsel offices
• Clerkships with judges who primarily handle health law cases

ROUNDS

During weekly rounds meetings, students discuss the work they are doing in their placements. These discussions provide an opportunity for students to collaborate and generate alternative approaches to particular legal problems and consider related ethical and professional responsibility issues.

GRADUATES OF THE HEALTH LAW CONCENTRATION

Graduates of the Health Law Concentration are currently working in private law firms, government agencies that oversee the delivery of care, and public-interest organizations that protect the health care rights of vulnerable populations, such as the poor, elderly, disabled and people with HIV. Law school graduates with training in health law have the opportunity to work in a wide variety of settings that emphasize trial and appellate litigation, transactional work, regulatory compliance, or policy and legislative advocacy.