Health Care Law

Overview

Health care law involves many facets of U.S. law, including torts, contracts, antitrust and insurance. Organizations associated with the health care industry such as nursing homes, hospitals, and insurance companies seek advice from health care lawyers on general corporate matters, as well as physician recruitment, acquisition of physician practices, and Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Health care lawyers also assist clients with many types of litigation, including medical malpractice defense cases, commercial disputes, antitrust disputes, intellectual property cases, real estate issues and labor disputes.

Skills/Personality Characteristics

  • Have an interest in the health care industry
  • Have excellent writing skills. Heath care lawyers spend a lot of time writing contracts, letters to physicians and articles
  • Have outstanding interpersonal skills: It is important that health care lawyers are able to work cooperatively with other parties and communicate with people from with varying education levels
  • Have creative problem-solving skills and an imagination: A health care lawyer must be comfortable working in an area of law that is constantly changing.
  • Be able to think fast on your feet and have good judgment
  • Be able to juggle a number of projects at a time and have good administrative skills: A health care lawyer must be organized.

Where do health care lawyers practice?

Health care law is mostly practiced in large or mid-size firms with departments specializing in health care law. Health care lawyers may also work directly for particular organizations associated with the health care industry, including hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies. Some health care lawyers work for city, state, or federal government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Department of Health/Mental Health.

Selected Courses at Brandeis School of Law

These courses have been taught in the last two years and may or may not be on the schedule for the next academic year. If you are interested in a course listed here, but the course is not on the schedule, please see the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

  • Insurance
  • Introduction to Health Law
  • Legal and Ethical Aspects of Public Health
  • Genetics and the Law
  • Psychiatry, Mental Health & the Law
  • Elder Law
  • Medical Malpractice
  • Medicine, Bioethics and the Law
  • Products Liability
  • Remedies
  • Medical Research Contracting & Regulatory Affairs Externship

Selected Faculty Who Teach in This Area

Timothy Hall
Karen Jordan

Student Organizations

  • Student Health Law Association

Externship/Public Service Placement Opportunities

Externships

  • Medical Research Contracting and Regulatory Affairs

Placements

  • Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Administrative Hearings Branch
  • Center for Accessible Living
  • Elder Abuse Unit at the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office
  • ACLU
  • Council on Developmental Disabilities
  • Kentucky Commission on Human Rights

Professional Associations

  • The American Health Lawyers Association
  • Kentucky Bar Association Health Care Law Section

For further reading, The Official Guide to Legal Specialties: An Insider's Guide to Every Major Practice Area, NALP, is available in the OPD Library.