Our students can choose from more than 20 courses and externships we offer in health and business regulation, public and environmental health, health equity and social justice, bioethics and legal medicine, and health sciences and technology.

Law, medical and graduate students from Georgia State University, Morehouse and Emory University regularly work together and learn about health law while assisting low-income patients at our award-winning Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic.

Certificate in Health Law

LL.M. in Health Law

Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic

Dual Degree Programs:

• JD & Master of Public Health
• JD & Master of Science in Health Administration
• JD & MBA & Master of Health Administration

The health law field encompasses many diverse areas to address the complex challenges to ensuring health and well-being in our society. Health lawyers need to have a solid and well-rounded background across legal disciplines. They also practice in a wide variety of health law settings, including:

• Corporate counsel who advise for-profit and not-for-profit health care businesses
• Corporate lawyers who counsel employers on health-related matters, including employee benefits and health plans
• Attorneys in private practice who advise on the rights of patients and health care providers, including doctors and institutional providers
• Attorneys in private practice who advise individuals and families on disability, workers compensation, special education, the welfare of children and the elderly, and other health-related issues
• Legal aid and civil rights lawyers who address the rights of economically disadvantaged and otherwise under-served members of the community and who promote their health and access to health care
• Trial attorneys involved in litigation related to insurance companies, health care enterprises, medical products manufacturers, or individuals’ health or health care outcomes
• Government attorneys representing administrative agencies or charged with implementing major health legislation at the federal, state or local levels
• Government attorneys who prosecute criminal fraud and abuse of other health-related white-collar crimes
• Intellectual property lawyers involved with the development of new health care technologies
• Legal advocates in nonprofit organizations who represent the health interests of particular segments of the population
• Mediators who facilitate the resolution of health-related disputes
• Lawyers who engage in research, policy analysis, and policy implementation

In addition, many lawyers’ pro bono activities are aimed at improving their community’s health.

Best practices

The health law program strives to offer best practices in health law education and to be a national leader in designing a model health law curriculum responsive to today’s challenges. The health law curriculum is not static; it responds to meet the realities of legal practice and the needs of future legal professionals.

Preparation for practice

The health law program is designed to support law students’ readiness for employment and to prepare them to engage as legal professionals in a variety of legal practice settings, including transactional litigation, regulatory, and public policy settings. The program strives to equip students with the relevant knowledge, skills, and values that will allow them to solve real-world problems, communicate well, and serve in leadership capacities.

Integrated learning

The health law program offers an integrated learning experience that reflects and reinforces foundational knowledge, skills, and values across the program and that leverages the strength of offerings in the JD program generally.  The curriculum is designed to provide familiarity with the basic health-related legal concepts, system structures, and organizations, and to provide a basic orientation to the field so students are able to navigate new problems and challenges.

Transferability and adaptability

Using the health field as a lens and context for studying law, the health law curriculum offers a foundation in knowledge, skills, and values that are readily transferable to other legal fields.

Flexibility

The breadth and depth of the health law curriculum is designed to meet the needs of diverse students. It is intended to be accessible to students wishing for an introduction to the field as well as those wishing to specialize in it, and it should meet the needs of part-time and full-time students.  The six curricular focus areas in health law allow interested students to drill down in different specialized areas of faculty expertise.

Curricular guidance and faculty advisement

The health law program is structured to offer a clear curricular organization and a pathway to guide students through both the general law school curriculum and the health law curriculum.  It provides a coherent educational experience that promotes progressive learning that builds on prior learning.  Faculty members are readily available to advise and assist students in course selection, research and scholarship, decisions about potential career paths, and taking advantage of other opportunities for professional development.

Professional values in interdisciplinary contexts

The health law program seeks to foster understanding and respect for the work of health-related professionals and to encourage thinking and action outside of traditional legal silos.  It is intended to promote the ability to collaborate and work in teams with other legal and health-related professionals.  The program contributes to developing professionalism, civility, and ethics in the conduct of future lawyers practicing in health law and other legal fields.

Promoting justice and the public’s interest

The health law program seeks to introduce students to the variety of ways that health lawyers and health-related professionals engage in promoting justice and the public’s interest.  The health law program emphasizes the importance of such activities as a part of professional responsibility, and it facilitates and encourages students’ participation in such activities.

The Center for Law, Health & Society and the American College of Legal Medicine have partnered on its publication, the Journal of Legal Medicine.

Leslie Wolf, interim dean and Distinguished University Professor of Law, serves as the editor-in-chief. Paul Lombardo, Regents’ Professor and Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law, and Jonathan Todres, Distinguished University Professor of Law are managing editors.

The Journal of Legal Medicine is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, internationally circulated journal that focuses broadly on the intersection of health sciences and law, policy, or ethics. In keeping with Georgia State Law’s and ACLM’s shared commitment to interdisciplinary exchange, the Journal will accept short commentaries (up to 3,000 words) and articles (up to 7,500 words), although longer articles may also be published. Authors may send article abstracts to the editors at lawandhealth@gsu.edu to receive pre-submission feedback on whether a topic fits the Journal’s publication priorities.

The Journal also accepts book and film reviews (approximately 1000 words). Authors and publishers wishing to have books or films reviewed may contact lawandhealth@gsu.edu with information on forthcoming publications or books or films released within the last calendar year.