PFC Preview: What is Health Law?
Our lunchtime panel What is Health Law? is happening next week. It’s open to the public, and especially great for students interested in learning more about the intersection of law and healthcare as a possible career focus.
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Our lunchtime panel What is Health Law? is happening next week. It’s open to the public, and especially great for students interested in learning more about the intersection of law and healthcare as a possible career focus.
Health law is a growing field generally, and an active focus area within Harvard Law School.
Our panelists, all HLS alumni, are at the forefront of the field. Although they will do this in more depth next week, I want to share some of their recent writings and projects.
Emily Broad Leib ’08
Clinical Professor of Law; Director, Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation; Director, Food Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School
In addition to teaching Food Law and Policy at HLS, Emily directs the nation’s first law school clinic devoted to providing legal and policy solutions to the health, economic, and environmental challenges facing our food system.
Recent publications:
Emily M. Broad Leib & Noelle Musolino, From Surplus to Sustenance: Confronting Food Waste to Uphold the Right to Food, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (2026).
Christina A. Roberto, Alyssa J. Moran & Emily Broad Leib, Modeling the Make America Healthy Again’s Food Policy Strategy on Tobacco, JAMA Health Forum (2026).
Jennifer L. Pomeranz, Emily M. Broad Leib & Dariush Mozaffarian, Food Ingredients, State Actions, and Federal Preemption, JAMA (2026).
Tim Ehrlich ’99
Partner & Chair of Life Sciences practice group, Gunderson Dettmer
Tim chairs the Life Sciences practice group at his law firm, representing start-up, emerging growth and public life science companies in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT industries. He also serves as an advisor to the Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Program at Harvard Law School and the Harvard University iLab.
Catherine Pattanayak ’04
Assistant Dean for Public Service, Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA), Harvard Law School
In addition to offering career services office specializing in public interest law at OPIA, Catherine has experience in the private sector and in government, having served as an attorney with the National Institutes of Health Branch of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the General Counsel.
Carmel Shachar ’10
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Health Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School
Carmel teaches Public Health Law and Policy at HLS, and focuses her scholarship on law and health policy, in particular the regulation of access to care for vulnerable individuals, the use of telehealth and digital health products, and the application of public health ethics to real world questions.
Recent publications:
Carmel Shachar, Eric Bressman & Ariel D. Stern, Carrots and Sticks: Incentives in Shaping Digital Health Products, The American Journal of Bioethics (2026).
Undaleeb Dairkee, Gregory Curfman & Carmel Shachar, In defense of diversity statements in medical education, Journal of Law and Bioethics (2026).
Carmel Shachar, David Blumenthal & I. Glenn Cohen, Preemption at the Intersection of Health Care and Artificial Intelligence, JAMA (2026).
Francis X. Shen ’06
Chief Innovation Officer at MGH Center for Law, Brain & Behavior and Director of the NJAM Neurolaw Program
Francis is a Professor of Law and Faculty Member in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota, and teaches part-time at Harvard Medical School, and co-directs the Neurotech Justice Accelerator at Mass General Brigham. His research explores the legal and ethical implications of advances in neuroscience, neurotechnology, and artificial intelligence.
Recent publications:
Craig W McFarland, Donnella S Comeau, Sepideh Abdi, Mahsa Alborzi Avanaki, Leo Anthony Celi; Neurotech Justice Workshop Participants; Francis X Shen, Benjamin C Silverman, Advancing neurotech justice in youth digital mental health: insights from an interdisciplinary and cross-generational workshop, NPP Digit Psychiatry Neurosci (2026).
Molly K Madzelan, Frances Lawrenz, Susan M Wolf, Francis X Shen, Revolutionizing Brain Research Using Portable MRI in Field Settings: Public Perspectives on the Ethical and Legal Challenges, Neuroethics (2025).
Susannah Baruch, Moderator
Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School
In addition to leading the Petrie-Flom Center, Susannah has deep and broad experience in health law policy and has held key leadership roles in nonprofits, academia, and government.
Recent publications:
Carmel Shachar, Susannah Baruch & Louise P. King, Encroachment on the Medical Profession, Yale Law & Policy Review, (2026).
Susannah Baruch and Backtosch Mustafa, Could Agentic AI Improve Access To Maternal Health Care?, Health Affairs, 2025.
Jin K. Park, Susannah Baruch, and I. Glenn Cohen, Polygenic Risk Scoring and the Duty to Warn, American Journal of Bioethics (2025).
We hope you can join us in person (register here), and if not, we’ll make a video recording available after the event.
Student Writing Competition
We’ll also announce our first-ever student writing competition. It’s open to HLS students only, and we’re looking for great submissions on any health law-related topic. Our blog guidelines are here, and the contest rules are here.
