Health Law

The College of Law offers a Certificate in Health Law to students who satisfactorily complete eighteen (18) credits in formally approved Health Law Certificate Program (HLC) courses with an average grade of C+ or better and no grade below C in designated Health Law Certificate courses. Designated HLC courses shall be determined by the Director of the HLC Program after conferring with each student HLC candidate. Any student who wishes to become a candidate for the HLC must register for the HLC program with the Director no later than registering for his/her final semester of law school.

I. Required Core Courses

-- A HLC candidate shall complete a minimum of six (6) credit hours consisting of at least three (3) courses. A minimum of one course shall be chosen from each of the two subcategories below:

A. Basic Health Care Law

  1. Health Law
  2. Bioethics and the Law
  3. Elder Law

B. Advanced Torts, Biomedical Ethics, Law, & Policy

  1. Advanced Torts 
  2. One of the following
    a. Mental Health Disability Law
    b. Social Security Disability Law

II. Health Law Practice Skills

-- A HLC candidate shall complete a minimum of four (4) credit hours consisting of at least two (2) courses. The courses shall be chosen from any two of the three subcategories set forth below:

A. Client Interviewing/Negotiation Skills:

  1. Introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution or
  2. One of the following
    a. Arbitration
    b. Interiewing, Counseling & Negotiating
    c. Mediation

B. Advocacy/Litigation Skills:

  1. Evidence Workshop
  2. Pretrial Practice
  3. Trial Practice

C. Legal Drafting/ Writing Skills:

  1. Estate Planning
  2. Independent Research Paper on health law-related subject approved by the Director of the HLC program as fulfilling HLC credits.
  3. Seminar or law journal paper on health law-related subject approved by the Director of the HLC program as fulfilling HLC credits; the seminar cannot duplicate requirements for Category I above.

III. Administrative, Employment, Business, & Related Courses

-- A HLC candidate shall complete a minimum of four (4) credit hours consisting of at least two (2) courses. The courses shall be chosen from any two of the three subcategories set forth below:

A. The Employment Setting

  1. Employment Discrimination Law
  2. Employment Law

B. Public Health, Safety, and Administration

  1. Administrative Law
  2. Environmental Law
  3. Workers Compensation

C. Business Organizations, Finance, & Taxation

  1. Agency and Partnership
  2. Antitrust Law*
  3. Basic Corporate Law
  4. Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights
  5. Selling & Leasing Goods
  6. Secured Transactions
  7. Trademark and Unfair Trade Practices*

IV. Law & Society

-- A HLC candidate shall complete a minimum of two (2) credit hours consisting of at least one (1) course chosen from either subcategory below:

A. The Individual and Society

  1. Family Law
  2. Juvenile Law
  3. Native American & Indigenous Rights
  4. Sex Crimes

B. Historical, Jurisprudential, or Economic Dimensions of the Law

  1. Federal Indian Law
  2. International Law

V. Health Law Practice

-- A HLC candidate shall complete a minimum of two (2) credit hours chosen from subcategory below and subject to the approval of the Director of the HLC program as fulfilling HLC requirements:

A. Health Law Externship

(e.g., by arrangement with corporate counsel of nonprofit hospital system or governmental agency & approved in advance by the HLC Director);

B. Practice Related Credits

  1. Judicial Internship encompassing significant exposure to health law cases; to receive credit toward the HLC, the internship shall be approved by the Director of the HLC program.
  2. Complete a practicum/independent research project in a health law related area approved by the Director of the HLC program; this project cannot duplicate the requirements for Category II.C. above.

C. Advanced Competitions

  1. Member of National Health Law Appellate Moot Court Team and enrolled for academic credit in “Advanced Competitions.” or
  2. Member of another national appellate moot court team which involves a problem specifically involving a health law issue and enrolled for academic credit in Advanced Competitions.

D. Significant law journal/law review work encompassing health law

[cannot duplicate other HLC credits].

VI. In individual cases

-- The Director of this Certificate Program and the Vice Dean are authorized to modify the requirements of the Program if, in their collective judgment, such a modification is warranted.

*Course offered on infrequent basis.

CERTIFICATE DIRECTOR:
Marguerite Chapman

Director of the Health Law Certificate Program and Associate Professor of Law
 marguerite-chapman@utulsa.edu
918-631-3052

Professor Chapman specializes in medical law and bioethics. Her law review article on the rights of the terminally ill was cited by Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark "righttodie" decision, Cruzan vs. Director, Missouri Department of Health. Professor Chapman has presented papers on biomedical ethics and the law at international conferences in Sydney, London, Toronto, and Montreal. She served on the advisory panel for the National Institutes of Health Human Genome Grant Project to develop ethical and legal guidance for genetic screening for adultonset genetic disorders. Professor Chapman received her J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and her LL.M. with highest honors from George Washington University. Since she joined TU College of Law in 1982, she has received two Student Bar Association Outstanding Professor of the Year Awards (for teaching firstyear students) and the university-wide Distinguished Teacher Award. She teaches health law, bioethics and the law, decedents' estates and trusts law, torts, and a seminar on law, medicine and ethics.