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Health Law

Thriving in a time of change – choose a career in Health Law.

What is Health Law? 

Health law is an umbrella term to describe the federal, state and local laws and regulations that apply to all aspects of the healthcare industry—from small healthcare provider practices to multi-state health systems to the pharmaceutical and device companies to insurance companies to public health agencies. The laws governing healthcare operations and individual patients are increasingly complex. Specialized legal training is critical to effective advocacy. 

Join Us in a Growing Field

Demonstrate your readiness to practice in the complex world of health law with a concentration in health law. Health lawyers work in many settings. Whether you want to represent individual providers, patients or large organizations—or help shape policy—there is a place for you in health law. A few examples of employers and areas of law include:

  • Law firm health law practices
    • Advising hospitals, long term care facilities, physician groups, and other healthcare providers on business planning, compliance, malpractice, licensure and disciplinary action
    • Advising insurance companies
    • Advising life sciences and technology industry on research compliance, intellectual property issues, and product development
  • Individual advocacy: small law firms or not-for-profits
    • Elder law
    • Medical malpractice
    • Employment discrimination
    • Challenging insurance and coverage determinations
  • In-house counsel in healthcare delivery or life sciences entities
  • Government employment in federal or state health, insurance, or public health agencies 
  • Healthcare policy development
  • Healthcare consulting groups

Your Courses

You must earn 18 credit hours and maintain a 3.0 GPA within the Health Law concentration. The courses that satisfy this requirement are indicated below:

LAW 391 Health Law Survey (3)
LAW 376 Healthcare Organizations (2)
LAW 322 Bioethics and the Law (3)

LAW 315 Arbitration (3)
LAW 327 Arbitration Advocacy (3)
LAW 310 Alternative Dispute Resolution (3)
LAW 388 Milton R. Abrahams Legal Clinic (4)
LAW 404 Mediation Process (3)
LAW 410 Negotiation (3)
LAW 500 Health Law related Externships (3)

LAW 347 Healthcare Insurance Law (2)
LAW 350 Elder Law (3)
LAW 359 Food and Drug Law (3)
LAW 368 Health Information Privacy (2)
LAW 362 Current Topics in Public Health Law (3)
LAW 485 Health Law Moot Court competitions (1-2)
LAW 435 Selected Research Topics (1-3)

Up to 3 total hours may be satisfied by one of the courses below or an pre-approved graduate level course:
LAW 307 Administrative Law (3)
LAW 324 Antitrust (3)
LAW 380 Mergers and Acquisitions (3)
LAW 413 Patent Law (3)
LAW 431 Scientific Evidence (3)
LAW 406 State and Local Governments in a Federal System (2,3)
LAW 459 White Collar Crime (3)

Students are required to complete a pre-approved substantial project on a health law topic. This may be satisfied by writing a paper that is substantially related to health law for a class (including by registering for a selected research topic), a law journal, or by completing the brief for the health law moot court competition.

Raising the Bar

"Healthcare is a huge industry and the regulations applicable to it certainly aren’t going to shrink anytime soon. Having a health law concentration with your JD can open many doors in the complex practice of health law." --Adam Kuenning, JD'13 Corporate Legal Counsel at Immanuel | Adjunct faculty at Creighton law school

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Adam Kuenning
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