Anyone know anything about health law? Forum

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rman1201

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Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by rman1201 » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:21 pm

Well of course there are some people out there with knowledge of health law, but more specifically on TLS.

I tried searching for it and almost every thread was just someone trying to justify attending SLU.

Is there substantial transactional work in healthlaw or is it primarily lit? Is this a solid path?

I'm mainly just trying to hone in on some sort of niche to focus my efforts towards to give me an edge with the job search, and health care seems like one field that won't be dying anytime soon. Plus it could provide an exit option, at least as an awesome soft for MD admissions should I end up hating my life as an attorney (not that that's the plan, but back-ups are always useful). Anyone with extensive knowledge or anecdotes? Would honing in on one specific thing hurt me at OCI if I'm also open to other options (I primarily want transactional in general - in house later on would be great)?

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fatduck

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by fatduck » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:24 pm

death panel judgeships are by appointment so you're going to need substantial political connections or a school with a lot of name prestige (HYS, maybe CCN)

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rman1201

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by rman1201 » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:28 pm

fatduck wrote:death panel judgeships are by appointment so you're going to need substantial political connections or a school with a lot of name prestige (HYS, maybe CCN)
Even for a death panel clerkship?

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tea_drinker

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by tea_drinker » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:37 pm

fatduck wrote:death panel judgeships are by appointment so you're going to need substantial political connections or a school with a lot of name prestige (HYS, maybe CCN)
Are you sure? I hear that you are automatically qualified if you prove to have experiences on this matter.
rman1201 wrote:
Plus it could provide an exit option, at least as an awesome soft for MD admissions should I end up hating my life as an attorney (not that that's the plan, but back-ups are always useful).
How's about go to med school now? If you don't like being a MD, then go back to law school. Health law isn't a spawning area as most of the work are either litigation or PI.

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rman1201

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by rman1201 » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:05 am

tea_drinker wrote:
fatduck wrote:death panel judgeships are by appointment so you're going to need substantial political connections or a school with a lot of name prestige (HYS, maybe CCN)
Are you sure? I hear that you are automatically qualified if you prove to have experiences on this matter.
rman1201 wrote:
Plus it could provide an exit option, at least as an awesome soft for MD admissions should I end up hating my life as an attorney (not that that's the plan, but back-ups are always useful).
How's about go to med school now? If you don't like being a MD, then go back to law school. Health law isn't a spawning area as most of the work are either litigation or PI.
I like law and aspire to be a debt slave attorney. Like I said, it isn't the plan to abandon ship, and I want to go into law more than I do anything else - it's just an exit option if 10 years down the road I discover I hate law (as many seem to end up) and don't want to do it anymore. Even if I was shooting for med school I'd be thinking of exit options (probably law) in case I hated that. I guess I'm just a committment-phobe. But that's derailing a bit. I appreciate the other part about it being primarily lit/PI.

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Capitol A

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by Capitol A » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:43 am

Health law isn't a spawning area as most of the work are either litigation or PI.
I'm not sure if "most of the work" is PI or litigation, but I know there is a tremendous amount to legal work related to health care. Health care is the most regulated industry in US, and hospitals, insurance companies, drug companies all need legal help. Whether its with regulation compliance, mergers and acquisitions, labor issues, etc. etc. etc.
If you're interested in health care but don't necessarily want to be a provider, there are a lot of avenues for this in the legal profession.
Edit:I just looked at OPs profile. I see you're in at BU. They have a health law program and journal. Of course traditional wisdom on TLS is that specialty programs are worthless, and this is probably true in as much as they will not directly translate into legal work. What the specialty program does provide though is the opportunity for externships, networking, and classes with people who are working in that specific area of law. That way, even if you don't end up actually getting the certificate, or whatever, you will at least get a peak at what type of issues are out there for you to deal with. Again, there are a LOT of issues in health care.

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rman1201

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by rman1201 » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:56 am

Capitol A wrote:
Health law isn't a spawning area as most of the work are either litigation or PI.
I'm not sure if "most of the work" is PI or litigation, but I know there is a tremendous amount to legal work related to health care. Health care is the most regulated industry in US, and hospitals, insurance companies, drug companies all need legal help. Whether its with regulation compliance, mergers and acquisitions, labor issues, etc. etc. etc.
If you're interested in health care but don't necessarily want to be a provider, there are a lot of avenues for this in the legal profession.
Edit:I just looked at OPs profile. I see you're in at BU. They have a health law program and journal. Of course traditional wisdom on TLS is that specialty programs are worthless, and this is probably true in as much as they will not directly translate into legal work. What the specialty program does provide though is the opportunity for externships, networking, and classes with people who are working in that specific area of law. That way, even if you don't end up actually getting the certificate, or whatever, you will at least get a peak at what type of issues are out there for you to deal with. Again, there are a LOT of issues in health care.
Yeah, BU is my top choice which is why I'm considering Health, I just didn't mention it to avoid starting a long specialty ranking de-rail - since my interest in healthlaw was more after the fact and not my reason for choosing BU. The externship opportunities do look pretty great though, the only thing is all this might be moot if I end up in the joint LLM program I applied to (Banking&Finance), which would probably be spreading myself too thin... Although I do have an undergrad internship with a major life insurance company, maybe all this could tie in and land me a decent job in the insurance industry.

aliarrow

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by aliarrow » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:58 am

Does anyone else think of Ted from Scrubs when they hear health law?

Image

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buckilaw

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by buckilaw » Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:07 am

aliarrow wrote:Does anyone else think of Ted from Scrubs when they hear health law?

Image
All the time. Also, I bet Ted attended SLU based on it's specialty ranking.

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Ginj

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Re: Anyone know anything about health law?

Post by Ginj » Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:18 am

I'm currently working in a health law department. The firm I work for operates as outside counsel to a huge cancer research organization with many subsidiaries, so a large part of what we do is transactional, and there is always work to be done. Another partner in my firm also does healthcare but focuses on litigation. With how often doctors and institutions are sued these days, she keeps herself pretty busy and always has new clients coming in.

...if that helps.

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