The distinguishing feature of UVA Law School’s program in health law is its collaboration with the University’s School of Medicine and its Medical Center, which is consistently ranked among the nation’s top hospitals. At the Law School, law students can study health law while interacting with medical students and physicians from all medical specialties, including pediatrics, neurology, internal medicine (infectious disease and geriatrics) and psychiatry. Law faculty teach in the School of Medicine and Medical School professors teach Law School classes. This collaboration extends to health policy experts in the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the Darden School of Business and the Schools of Architecture, Arts & Sciences, Engineering and Nursing. Students benefit from viewing the regulatory context through the eyes of physicians, inventors, health care administrators and experts from a variety of fields.
This interdisciplinary approach is further borne out through institutes and centers at UVA that allow students to study and work on pressing issues in health care, biotechnology, research, genetics and moral philosophy:
In conjunction with the Department of Public Health Sciences at the School of Medicine, the Law School offers a dual degree in public health. Students have access to graduate courses in health policy and management, health economics, ethics, global health, social and behavioral health, environmental health and research methodology. Instituted in 2003, the M.P.H. program offers concentrations in generalist practice and research, health policy, and law and ethics, and includes field placement options in global health, health policy and public health sites. The program takes four years to complete and requires a minimum of 116 credits. More
J.D.-M.D. Program
Designed to educate the next generation of health leaders, the J.D.-M.D. program allows students to complete law and medical degrees in six years, instead of the seven years normally required if the degrees were pursued separately. Students spend the first three years and the summer of year five in classes at the School of Medicine, and years four and five at the Law School. In the final year, one semester is spent in each school. Students are required to secure admission separately to the School of Medicine and UVA Law through the normal admissions processes of the two schools. More
Clinic
Students in the yearlong Health and Disability Law Clinic help represent mentally ill and elderly clients in negotiations, administrative hearings and court proceedings. The legal matters may involve civil rights, mental health care in jails and prisons, disability benefits claims, access to health or rehabilitative services, creating wills and other testamentary documents, and advance directives.
Where do—and should—future disabilities fit within the law? Disability civil rights laws expressly extend rights to individuals with present or past...
The World Health Organization guidelines on organ and tissue donation mandate national (or sometimes only regional) self-sufficiency and an absence of...
Our perceptions of what we owe each other turn somewhat on whether we consider “another” to be “an other”—a stranger and not a friend. In this essay...
The role of implicit racial biases in police interactions with people of color has garnered increased public attention and scholarly examination over...
Where do—and should—future disabilities fit within the law? Disability civil rights laws expressly extend rights to individuals with present or past...
The World Health Organization guidelines on organ and tissue donation mandate national (or sometimes only regional) self-sufficiency and an absence of...
Our perceptions of what we owe each other turn somewhat on whether we consider “another” to be “an other”—a stranger and not a friend. In this essay...
The role of implicit racial biases in police interactions with people of color has garnered increased public attention and scholarly examination over...
Hot Flash: How Understanding Menopause Can Improve Life and Law for Everyone dissolves the silence and stigma surrounding menopause. The book frames...
Hot Flash: How Understanding Menopause Can Improve Life and Law for Everyone dissolves the silence and stigma surrounding menopause. The book frames...
The SEC mandates that public companies assess new information that changes the risks that they face and disclose these if there has been a “material”...
Even before the pandemic, the 90,000 local governments in the United States faced grim fiscal positions. During the pandemic, revenues cratered, costs...
This essay examines the relationship between experiences of racial discrimination and pain, assessing how social, legal, and regulatory responses to...
The Article uncovers the hidden framework for the Supreme Court’s approach to public values, a framework that has shaped – and will continue to shape...
Philosophers have debated whether the advance directives of Alzheimer’s patients should be enforced, even if patients seem content in their demented...
Now that the Supreme Court has revoked the constitutional right to reproductive autonomy, we must reckon with the risks that our surveillance economy...
In August 2021, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine published its most recent opinion on the financial compensation of oocyte (egg) donors...
A Forum discussing: Kidneys for Sale: Empirical Evidence From Iran by Moeindarbari T and Feizi M (2022). Transpl Int 35:10178. doi: https://doi.org/10...
As this Essay shows, the fertility discourse of the last half century deals with the profound effects that come from the transformation of the economy...
This chapter "rewrites" Smith v. Rasmussen, 249 F.3d 755 (8th Cir. 2001), which affirmed Iowa’s Medicaid agency's refusal to cover gender affirmation...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented natural disasters of 2020 remind us of the importance of emergency preparedness. This Article contributes...
Menopause is defined by its relationship to menstruation––it is the cessation of menstruation. Medical texts identify menopause as part of the cycle...
Instituted in 2003 by the School of Law, the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the dual degree in public health, offered in conjunction with the Department of Public Health Sciences, offers concentrations in generalist practice and research and in health policy, law and ethics. The M.P.H. program features close collaboration with the federal Centers for Disease Control and with state and local public health offices in Virginia.
Designed to educate the next generation of health leaders, the J.D.-M.D. program allows students to complete law and medical degrees in six years, instead of the seven years normally required if the degrees were pursued separately. Students spend the first three years and the summer of year five in classes at the School of Medicine, and years four and five at the Law School. In the final year, one semester is spent in each school. Students are required to secure admission separately to the School of Medicine and UVA Law through the normal admissions processes of the two schools.
Incoming University of Virginia School of Law student Himani Gubbi, who is also working toward a M.D. at UVA, wants to use her experience working in medical clinics and conducting policy analysis to effect long-term changes in health care.
Angela P. Harris, Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, delivered the opening keynote address at a conference hosted by the University of Virginia Schools of Law, Nursing and Medicine: “Healing Hate: A Public Health Perspective on Civil Rights in America.” Harris presented her research on how racial disparities in access to and quality of health care in America have lifelong impacts on communities of color. UVA Law professor Dayna Bowen Matthew ’87 introduced Harris.
The following is a list of courses offered during 2024-26. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2023-24 is coded (24), 2024-25 is coded (25) and 2025-26 is coded (26). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.
Bioethics and Law Internship Seminar: Health Policy and Administration (24,25,26) Bioethics and the Law Seminar (24,25,26) Biotechnology and the Law (25) Blood Feud (SC) (24,25,26) Cannabis Legalization (SC) (24) Current Topics in Law, Medicine and Society (SC) (24,25,26) Disability Law (24,26) Drug Product Liability Litigation Seminar (24,25,26) Drug Product Liability Litigation: Principles and Practice (24,25,26) Food and Drug Law (24,26) Forensic Psychology in Criminal Proceedings (24) Genetics and the Law (SC) (24,25) Health Care Marketplace: Competition, Regulation and Reform (SC) (25) Health Law Survey (24,25,26) Law and the Social Determinants of Health (24) Mental Health Law (24) Religious Freedom and Reproductive Rights (24) Reproductive Ethics and Law (SC) (24,25,26) Reproductive Rights and Justice (24) Ten-Year Checkup of the Affordable Care Act (24) Veterans Law (26)
University of Virginia School of Law professor Alice Abrokwa has won the 2026 John Hope Franklin Prize for her article examining the impact of the label “noncompliant” being disproportionately applied to Black patients in healthcare settings.
Experts increasingly use the language of medicine and disability to address social issues like poverty and racial discrimination. Professors Craig Konnoth of UVA Law and Karen M. Tani of Penn Law discuss how we got here.
Health Law Association The Health Law Association is open to all law, LL.M., medical, graduate and undergraduate students. The group sponsors speakers and seminars in the health law field throughout the year and organizes social activities with medical and other graduate students.
Research Project
MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study The public perception that mental disorder is strongly associated with violence drives both legal policy (e.g., civil commitment) and social practice (e.g., stigma) toward people with mental disorders. This study describes and characterizes the prevalence of community violence in a sample of people recently discharged from acute psychiatric facilities at three sites.
UVA Organizations
Department of Public Health Sciences By assembling a multidisciplinary team and combining the expertise of the basic clinical sciences of biostatistics, clinical epidemiology, health services research, and informatics, the Department aims to provide a better understanding of the relationships among biologic discoveries, patient and population characteristics, treatment options, public health interventions, systems, and outcomes.
Walter H. Coulter Center for Translational Research UVA's Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research awards approximately $1 million annually to biomedical engineering faculty and research collaborators from the School of Medicine, the School of Engineering, and other areas across the University. These co-investigators work together to develop innovative technologies that address unmet clinical needs, improve health care, and advance toward commercially viable products.
Center for Health Humanities & Ethics The UVA Center for Health Humanities & Ethics is an interprofessional community of scholars, teachers and practitioners whose interests in the human dimensions of illness, health, and health care bridge clinical and social sciences, arts and humanities, ethics and law, philosophy and religion. Its mission is to demonstrate the complementary nature of these disciplines while furthering their productive integration and application in the classroom and clinic, at the bedside and in the community.
Center for Global Health Equity The center promotes health by fostering the commitment and development of students, faculty and partners around the world.
Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy The Institute offers training, educational, research, and service programs in the areas of forensic psychiatry, forensic psychology, and mental health law. Affiliated with the University's Law School, School of Medicine, and its College of Arts & Sciences, the Institute has an interdisciplinary faculty of attorneys, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. Its Forensic Psychiatry Clinic performs clinical evaluations in a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. The Institute conducts training programs for the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse Services and provides continuing education for attorneys and judges. The institute also conducts extensive empirical and theoretical research in clinical criminology, forensic psychiatry/psychology, and mental health law and policy.
Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life The Institute fosters scholarship, education, and research in practical ethics. To this end, the Institute provides an intellectual home for faculty and students from across the University who wish to pursue interdisciplinary scholarship, research, and teaching on the complex ethical issues that underline contemporary professions, organizations, and public policy. Additionally, the Institute aims to connect, create and support programs in practical ethics throughout the University and thus create a model for ethics as an integral part of undergraduate, graduate, and professional education.
Community-Based Health Equity Research Program The Community-Based Health Equity Research Program includes a group of behavioral and implementation scientists and staff who focus on the development, implementation, and sustainability of effective obesity- and cancer-related interventions within rural communities.
School of Medicine The School of Medicine is a nationally recognized, medium-sized school with balanced programs of undergraduate and graduate medical education and with biomedical research programs nationally recognized for their stature and productivity. Law students have the opportunity to interact with faculty, residents, and students from many departments in the medical school, including theDepartment of Public Health Sciences and the Center for Global Health.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Naomi Cahn is a co-author of “Hot Flash: How the Law Ignores Menopause and What We Can Do About It,” examining the silence and stigma that surrounds menopause in the legal sphere.
UVA Law alumni in leading health-related industries discuss the impact of COVID-19 and the unique challenges presented by the pandemic. The panelists are Thomas Moriarty ’89, CVS Health; Sandy van der Vaart ’93, LabCorp; Michael McAlevey ’89, GE Healthcare; and Michael Lampert ’03, Ropes & Gray, with an introduction by Dean Risa Goluboff. This event was sponsored by the Health Law Association and the Virginia Journal of Law & Technology.
The Forum gives faculty and students from the Schools of Law and Medicine (and elsewhere in the University) the chance to present works in progress.
Sadie Lewis Webb Program in Law and Biomedicine/Health Policy Lecture Series
Established by Earl "Duke" Collier, Law Class of 1973 in 2002 in honor of his grandmother, the Program sponsors the Sadie Lewis Webb Visiting Scholar, faculty workshops, scholarly lunch discussions, informal seminars, medical center hour presentations and symposium on health, human rights and ethics. The inaugural visitor was Dr. Albert Jonsen in October 2002 and Alta Charo in January and March of 2004. More
P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture
The P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry was established by the University of Virginia School of Law as a tribute to the life and work of P. Browning Hoffman, who held joint appointments as Professor of Law and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, and was the founding director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy.
Previous Lecturers
Jennifer Skeem, Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley
Jeffrey Swanson, Ph.D., Duke University
Alan Stone, M.D., Harvard University
Seymour Halleck, M.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Norval Morris, L.L.B., L.L.M., Ph.D., University of Chicago
Loren Roth, M.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Paul S. Appelbaum, M.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School
Tom Grisso, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School
John Gunn, M.D. University of London
Robert A. Burt, M.A., J.D. Yale University
Semyon Gluzman, M.D., Ukrainian Psychiatric Association
Stephen J. Morse of the University of Pennsylvania Law School
University of Virginia School of Law graduates Lena Welch ’20 and Salwa Ahmad ’24 share how Robert F. Kennedy ’51 Public Service Fellowships helped them launch their careers in public interest law.
A panel of activists and scholars discuss how neighborhood zoning policies, uneven environmental protection rules and “proactive” police enforcement can negatively affect health outcomes in minority communities. The panel featured Vernice Miller-Travis, executive vice president of Metropolitan Group; Marianne Engelman-Lado, a lecturer at Yale and a visiting professor at Vermont Law School; and Jeffrey A. Fagan, a Columbia Law School professor. David Toscano ’86, a former delegate and minority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, served as moderator. This panel was part of the symposium “Healing Hate: A Public Health Perspective on Civil Rights in America,” hosted by the University of Virginia Schools of Law, Medicine and Nursing.
Clinics at the University of Virginia School of Law represented inmates seeking parole, helped tenants facing eviction and taught teens about state government, among other accomplishments in the past year.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Alice Abrokwa has won the 2026 John Hope Franklin Prize for her article examining the impact of the label “noncompliant” being disproportionately applied to Black patients in healthcare settings.
Three professors at the University of Virginia School of Law recently wrote about how AI models could change the legal field and even one’s sense of identity.
First-year student Haley Kwoun discusses how caretaking for her mother after a cancer diagnosis convinced her to study health law and policy at the University of Virginia School of Law.
University of Virginia School of Law student Ariel Vasser has been awarded the Skadden Public Interest Fellowship to work at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
Experts increasingly use the language of medicine and disability to address social issues like poverty and racial discrimination. Professors Craig Konnoth of UVA Law and Karen M. Tani of Penn Law discuss how we got here.
University of California, Berkeley professor Jennifer Skeem discusses empirical guidance for shifting programs and practices to improve outcomes for high-need, high-risk populations involved in the justice system. Skeem’s talk was the 18th P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry, sponsored by the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, and the University’s schools of Law and Medicine. UVA Law professors Richard Bonnie ’69 and John Monahan introduce the event.
UVA Law professor John Monahan discusses how predicting violence became a concern for courtrooms and mental health practices nationwide, and developed alongside his own career.
UVA Law alumni in leading health-related industries discuss the impact of COVID-19 and the unique challenges presented by the pandemic. The panelists are Thomas Moriarty ’89, CVS Health; Sandy van der Vaart ’93, LabCorp; Michael McAlevey ’89, GE Healthcare; and Michael Lampert ’03, Ropes & Gray, with an introduction by Dean Risa Goluboff. This event was sponsored by the Health Law Association and the Virginia Journal of Law & Technology.
First-year student Haley Kwoun discusses how caretaking for her mother after a cancer diagnosis convinced her to study health law and policy at the University of Virginia School of Law.
University of California, Berkeley professor Jennifer Skeem discusses empirical guidance for shifting programs and practices to improve outcomes for high-need, high-risk populations involved in the justice system. Skeem’s talk was the 18th P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry, sponsored by the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, and the University’s schools of Law and Medicine. UVA Law professors Richard Bonnie ’69 and John Monahan introduce the event.
The Miller Center’s Health Care Policy Project will host a panel to examine which strategies are most likely to strengthen the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, what a reconstituted agency may look like, why leadership matters and how trust and confidence can be rebuilt. Professor Margaret Foster Riley will moderate.
Join the Health Law Association for the first general body meeting of the semester. This kickoff event will feature a faculty-led panel titled “What is Health Law?,” designed especially for students who are new to the field or curious about exploring it further. Faculty panelists will offer insights into the scope of health law, share perspectives from their own work and research, and discuss the wide range of topics and career paths the field encompasses — from healthcare regulation and bioethics to public health policy and beyond. The panel will also include time for audience questions, providing a great opportunity to engage directly with professors and learn more about their areas of expertise. Food will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Major changes in health care policy have been among the defining elements of President Donald Trump’s second term. Policy experts from the Miller Center and UVA Health, including Professor Margaret Foster Riley, will explore shifts in vaccine guidelines, American Care Act subsidies, Medicaid cuts, prescription drug pricing, public health and the role of the “MAHA” movement in the Trump coalition, all with an eye toward their possible political effects in the upcoming midterm elections.
Join VLW in welcoming Dr. Linnea Goodman, a UVA Health OB/GYN and Virginia Fertility & IVF clinical director, for a presentation on reproductive health in the legal profession.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
The second Trump administration has brought transformative changes to the U.S. health care system and to medical research and funding. From cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies to cancellation of research grants and departures of scientific leaders, policy shifts have remade the landscape for health care and research. At the same time, many underlying challenges remain unaddressed. In this event, four Miller Center and UVA health care experts, including Professor Margaret Foster Riley, discuss what has happened, what it means, and where U.S. health care might be headed next.
Join the Miller Center for a roundtable discussion on public policy in three areas: health care, national security and executive branch reform. Each policy area will feature a historian paired with an experienced government practitioner, including Professor Margaret Foster Riley, to discuss perspectives on responsible and effective public policy.
Students will discuss the state of reproductive rights after SCOTUS’ decisions in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. Food will be provided.
A panel featuring multiple health law faculty will expose students to health law work, health law course offerings and professional relationships within the health law field.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
