Lawyers in Health Care
The Practice
January/February 2026
Legal and medical teams have to cross substantial professional divisions when they collaborate, but working together across such divisions offers substantial benefits.
January/February 2026
Introducing the January 2026 Issue
Lawyers must frequently become experts in new fields, but working in legal in health care means an additional burden and opportunity—bridging the gap between law, medicine, and patient care in a highly regulated and fast-changing environment.
Building a Home for Health Law
As the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics celebrates its 20th year, we ask three scholars central to it formation and impact to reflect on where the Center started and the field its helped create.
Partnering on Patient Advocacy
Formal partnerships between hospitals and legal aid groups or law school clinics—called medical-legal partnerships (MLP)—help both professions provide better care and advocacy for vulnerable populations.
Leading Legal in Health Care
Two general counsel at major health care institutions explain how they balance the mission of providing life-saving care while managing risk and liability in an uncertain regulatory atmosphere.
Unseen Constraints in Public Health Decision-Making
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who served as the 19th director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), learned early in her career that collaborating with lawyers could prove fruitful, especially in her policy advocacy around HIV. But, "we don’t know how to talk to one another," she says. She speaks to David B. Wilkins, CLP faculty director, about how we might work together.
