Website: Where Will Your Legal Education Take You?: Health Law Attorney

Health Law

Graphic by Alondra Pulido.

Health law attorneys may work on a variety of cases and policies ranging from insurance coverage to ethics, and from food and drug safety to disease prevention. In regards to other legal areas, health law attorneys may find that their work involves contract law, tax law, insurance law, labor law, torts, criminal law, administrative law, and more. Additionally, First Amendment religious liberty may be a concept that comes up in a health law attorney’s career, especially as that concept relates to reproductive health care. Currently, this issue is addressed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has a reproductive health mandate regarding access to contraceptives, which demonstrates that health law is a field intertwined with compliance (learn more about Compliance Attorneys).

One major workaround that health law attorneys may come across when they need to review medical information relevant to a case (for example, in personal injury litigation) is the fact that federal privacy laws may limit their ability to obtain this information. Two of the most prominent federal statutes are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Health law attorneys should also be aware of Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) which ensure that health decisions aren’t made because of a financial arrangement, such as the health care provider profiting off of a referral.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has created new legal issues and challenges across the health law sector. This includes issues involving civil liberties (especially as they relate to mask and social distancing requirements) and workers’ rights (especially as the economy opens). The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought to light important questions about climate change, the education system, election law, federalism, insurance, the healthcare system, immigration, and the prison system, and will likely have a lasting impact in all of these areas. For more in-depth information about COVID-19 and the law, consider reading the Gallagher Law Library’s guide on Law in the Time of COVID-19.

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In addition to the Health Law Concentration Track for students enrolled in the UW Law's JD program, law students interested in pursuing a career as a compliance attorney and working within the realm of health law should consider the UW Law’s Health Law LL.M. program. The Health LL.M. is the only such program on the West Coast. It trains students in an interdisciplinary curriculum, with courses offered in medical malpractice, public health law, research and medical ethics, global health, and biotechnology law. Additionally, students in the LL.M. program may also choose from three tracks to focus their studies in: U.S. Health Law and Policy, Global Health and Justice, or Genomics and Biotechnology; and can therefore tailor their studies to a more compliance law focus.