Health Law Clinic:
The Health Law Clinic is a full-year, full-time clinic offered for 10 credits (5 credits/semester). Students will receive separate letter grades at the end of the year for the clinic work and seminar. The clinic will be open to both day and evening students, including HJD students, in their last two (2) years of law school and Accelerated JD students in their last year.
Through direct representation and policy work, student attorneys in the Health Law Clinic (HLC) use the medical-legal partnership (MLP) model to work alongside healthcare providers to address the root causes of adverse health outcomes and systemic health disparities. Student attorneys represent low-income individuals with disabilities and/or chronic health conditions in administrative matters such as appeals of denials of claims for disability benefits before the Social Security Administration and appeals of denials of covered services before the MassHealth Board of Hearings and the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) Commissioner. The HLC also represents a limited number of caregivers in litigation in adult guardianship cases in the Probate & Family Court.
Student attorneys use their casework to inform policy projects. Currently, student attorneys are working with the MA Doula Coalition to develop curriculum on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance for newly MassHealth-credentialed doulas, proposing new regulations that require DDS and the Department of Mental Health (DMH) to work together to address the complex needs of individuals with dual diagnosis, and filing amicus briefs in support of health-related appellate cases. Students work both individually and in teams. Students will have the support of clinical faculty but are expected to serve as lead attorneys and take initiative and responsibility for their cases and projects.
Students will have an opportunity to develop fundamental lawyering skills, closely examine legal ethics in the context of health law practice, as well as explore their professional identities. Students will hone skills in areas such as client interviewing and counseling, cross cultural competency, legal problem solving, drafting, legal research, prioritization of legal needs, legislative advocacy, and oral and written persuasion. Students will also gain substantive legal knowledge in the relevant areas of health law, including benefits law, health privacy, health insurance law, and potentially adult guardianship law.
We will approach our work through a health equity and access to justice lens, with a focus on how legal needs impact individual and population health. We will also approach our cases through a disability rights lens and explore intersectional impacts of poverty, race, and other identities on the social determinants of health (SDOH).
The clinic will be appropriate for students interested in a range of practice areas, but it may be of particular interest to students who wish to pursue careers within the health law field. Past graduates of the Health Law Clinic have gone on to practice health law in large and small firms; work as in-house counsel for insurers, hospitals, and nursing homes; work in leading health policy organizations; work in compliance and data privacy; work for biotech firms; as well as for non-profit legal services organizations and State and Federal government agencies. Graduates also have successfully pursued completely different career paths, including criminal prosecution and defense, family law, corporate law, and many other careers.
Students enrolled in the clinic are required to attend a weekly seminar covering the relevant substantive areas of health-law, disability rights, the social determinants of health (SDOH), lawyering skills, and ethical issues that arise in practice. In addition to the seminar, students are required to attend weekly supervision meetings and to write journal entries critically reflecting on their experiences in the clinic and seminar. Students are required to spend at least 13 hours per week engaged in clinic work – in addition to the time required for the seminar, journal entries, and supervision. Preference will be given to students entering their last year of law school and those who have taken courses in the Health Law Concentration (although those courses are not required). Students must have completed or be currently enrolled in Professional Responsibility. Spanish language skills are also valued.
If you have any questions, please contact HLC Director Kate Gannon (she/her).