Health Law Certificate

Health law is a complex and rapidly changing field, encompassing a wide range of laws and policies regulating the health care industry and service delivery, as well as addressing patient care and the public’s health. Competent health lawyers are usually generalists; depending on their specific area of legal practice, they are corporate lawyers, administrative and regulatory lawyers, individual rights lawyers, trial lawyers, etc. First, as generalists, their skills are applied to the demands of diverse legal work, which encompasses a broad array of general and specific laws affecting health and health-related organizations as well as a wide range of public and private practice settings. Second, contemporary health lawyers need to have a solid and well-rounded background across many legal curricular disciplines, and they need to be prepared to work with professionals from other non-legal, health-related disciplines. Third, trends in legal education favor structuring a curriculum not only to incorporate doctrinal knowledge and theories but also to promote sound lawyering skills, effective interpersonal behaviors, and professional values, ethics and habits.

Certificate Requirements

Required Courses

LAW 7010 - Administrative Law. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7101 - Corporations. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7239 - Health Law: Quality and Access. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7240 - Health Law: Financing and Delivery. 2 to 4 Credit Hours

Elective Courses

Choice of Health Law Course from either Public Health Law focus or Bioethics focus:

Note: Additional courses may be approved by the Associate Director of the Center for Law, Health & Society.

Bioethics

LAW 7099 - Bioethics and the Law. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7098 - Biotechnology Law, Policy and Ethics. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7454 - Forensic Medicine. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7253 - Human Subjects Research. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7249 - Genetics and the Law. 2 to 3 Credit Hours

Public Health Law

LAW 7244 - Public Health Law. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7243 - HIV/AIDS and the Law. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7341 - Law and Mental Health. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7234 - Food and Drug Law. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7251 - Law and Social Welfare. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7331 - Law and Health Equity. 3 Credit Hours

Experiential Learning

Choice of one qualifying experiential learning (E) course, clinic, or externship from either the health law curriculum or J.D. curriculum (in addition to Lawyering Advocacy). Examples include:

LAW 6090E - HeLP Legal Services Clinic I. 6 Credit Hours
LAW 6091E - HeLP Legal Services Clinic II. 4 to 6 Credit Hours
LAW 6092E - Olmstead Disability Rights Clinic I 4 Credit Hours
LAW 6093E - Olmstead Disability Rights Clinic II. 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7247E - Health Legislation and Advocacy I. 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7248E - Health Legislation and Advocacy II. 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7600E - Tax Law Clinic: Tax Court I. 6 Credit Hours
LAW 7601E - Tax Law Clinic: Tax Court II. 4 to 6 Credit Hours
LAW 7291E - Interviewing and Counseling. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7062E - Mediation Advocacy: Law and Practice 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7414E - Negotiation. 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7060E - Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution (ADR). 2 to 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7800E - Health Care Transactions and Regulatory Practicum. 3 Credit Hours
LAW 7607E - Immigration Clinic I. 6 Credit Hours
LAW 7608E - Immigration Clinic II. 4 to 6 Credit Hours
LAW 8000E - Externship Seminar. 1 Credit Hours

Writing Requirement

Students must complete a substantial writing project on a health law topic, supervised by a health law faculty member, that satisfies the COL writing requirement would satisfy this certificate requirement, subject to the certificate’s minimum grade requirement.

Extracurricular Activity

Students must complete fifteen hours or five events such as participation in pro bono service, attendance at conferences or speakers on health law topics, participation in a health law competition, leadership in the Student Health Law Association, etc.

Grades

A minimum GPA (average) of 3.00 is required for all courses satisfying certificate requirements. If a student does not earn a passing grade in a required health law certificate course, the course must be taken again. Both the failing grade from the first attempt and the passing grade from the second attempt will be calculated in the GPA for the certificate, and the student must still meet the minimum GPA of 3.00. If a student does not earn a passing grade in an elective or experiential learning course taken toward the certificate requirements, the student may take a different course that satisfies that requirement instead, and the higher grade will be counted toward the certificate GPA. If a student takes more than one course that meets a certificate requirement, then the student can utilize the highest eligible grade when computing the GPA.

A minimum grade of 3.00 is also required for the writing requirement.

Honors will be awarded for a GPA (average) of 3.60 or higher in all health law courses taken for the certificate or as additional electives.