Faculty - University of Virginia School of Law

CONTACT
mf9c@virginia.edu
(434) 924-4671
Room WB347

ASSISTANT
Donna Wills

SUBJECTS
Food & Drug Law, Biotechnology, Bioethics, Health Law, Animal Law

Margaret Foster Riley

Professor, General Faculty
J.D., Columbia University School of Law, 1985
A.B., Duke University, 1981

Margaret (Mimi) Foster Riley became a member of the faculty in 1992. Riley also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences at UVA’s School of Medicine. She teaches food and drug law, health law, animal law, bioethics, regulation of clinical research and public health law.

Riley has written and presented extensively about biomedical research, genetics, reproductive technologies, stem cell research, animal biotechnology, health disparities and chronic disease. She serves as chair of UVA's Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee and as legal advisor to the Health Sciences Institutional Review Board, which is responsible for reviewing all human subject research at UVA involving medically invasive procedures.

Before coming to Virginia, Riley was an associate with Pepper Hamilton & Scheetz in Philadelphia, where she worked primarily in complex securities, commercial and mass tort litigation. Prior to that position, she was a litigation associate with Rogers & Wells in New York. Riley received her law degree from Columbia University and her bachelor of arts from Duke University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Publications

"In Plain Sight: A Solution to a Fundamental Challenge in Human Research" (with Lois L. Shepherd) Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics (forthcoming).
SSRN

“Federal Funding and the Institutional Evolution of Federal Regulation of Biomedical Research,” 5 Harv. L. & Pol'y Rev. 265 (2011).
HeinOnline (PDF)

“How Should Ethics Affect FDA Regulation Of Genetically Engineered Animals?” Food & Drug Pol'y F., Vol. 1, No. 15 (August 2011).

"Regulating Reproductive Genetics: A Review of American Bioethics Commissions and Comparison to the British Human Fertilisation and Embyology Authority" (with Richard Merrill), 6 Colum. Sci. & Tech. L. Rev. (2005).
Journal

“A Critique of Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council on Bioethics,” 20 J.L. & Pol. 463 (2004).
HeinOnline (PDF)

Current Courses

All Courses

Germs and Justice: Law and Disease
Legal Research and Writing

In the Media

"Local, UVa Experts: Health Care Law Will Still Take Years to Implement; The Already Insured Won't See Much Change" (The Daily Progress, 06/28/2012)
"Health Advocates React to Supreme Court Health Care Ruling" (NBC 29, 06/28/2012)
"FDA Regulation of Antibiotic Use in Agricultural Animals" (Author) (Jurist, 05/29/2012)
"Health Care Reform Opponents, Supporters Rally in Charlottesville" (NBC 29, 03/26/2012)
"Stopping Animal Biotech in U.S. Won't Stop It Elsewhere, BIO Told" (Food Chemical News, 05/10/2010)
"Reinventing Life" (UVA Magazine, 03/08/2010)
"135,000 Uninsured Americans Will Die Before Health Reform Takes Effect, Analysis Finds" (The Raw Story, 12/15/2009)
"UVA Law Class Exploring Animal Law Issues" (NBC 29, 11/09/2009)
"UVA Seminar Focuses on Animal Law" (Charlottesville Daily Progress, 11/06/2009)
"GE Animal Developers Urged to Engage Critics on Ethical Issues" (Food Chemical News, 05/25/2009)
"UVa Researchers Happy About Funding for Stem Cell Research" (WCAV, 03/09/2009)
"Barker's Gift to Found Animal Law Program" (Charlottesville Daily Progress, 01/14/2009)
"Barker Grant Aids U.Va. Animal Law Program" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 01/14/2009)
"Lawyers Dispute Patents on Animals and Plants" (Duke Chronicle (NC), 11/12/2007)
"Support for Stem-Cell Study Falls, Poll Shows" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 12/14/2006)
"The Write Stuff" (U.S. News & World Report, 04/11/2005)