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Health Law Student Opportunities

There are several health law-specific skills and writing competitions where students can develop key lawyering skills and that may provide publication opportunities. Postgrad fellowships generally provide recent graduates with the opportunity to develop their own legal services or research projects. Students interested in any of these competitions or fellowships should reach out to the Student Health Law Association, which can help identify student partners, faculty coaches or advisors, and alumni who have done these fellowships.  Students who are interested in attending health law conferences that require registration or membership fees should also contact the Student Health Law Association, as there may be financial support available.

Competitions

Writing Competitions

Roy Snell Health Care Regulatory and Compliance Writing Competition (Mitchell Hamline School of Law)

This competition challenges students to create an innovative solution to a complex, hypothetical fact pattern involving health care regulatory and compliance issues. It is open to all JD students who have completed their 1L year. Winners receive cash prizes and free registration and travel support for the Health Care Compliance Association’s Annual Compliance Institute.

Austern Writing Competition (Food and Drug Law Institute)

This competition seeks student papers concerning areas of law in the industries regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The competition is open to all JD students. Winners receive cash prizes, a free one-year membership in the Food and Drug Law Institute, and are considered for publication in the Food and Drug Law Journal. Students should check the website for updates on future competitions. 

Health Law Writing Competition (Epstein Becker Green)

Students may submit papers concerning issues unique to health law or traditional areas of the law as applied to health care. The competition is open to JD and LLM students. Winners receive cash prizes and are considered for publication in the Annals of Health Law.

National Health Law Competition (American University Washington College of Law)

Students may submit papers on current topics in health or food and drug law. Current JD and LLM students who have completed their 1L year at the time of submission are eligible. Winners receive cash prizes. Students should check the website for updates on future competitions. 

ABA Health Law Student Writing Competition (American Bar Association Health Law Section)

Students can write about any topic in health law. The competition is open to any law student in good standing who is over the age of 21 and is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. The first place winner receives a cash prize, publication in The Health Lawyer, and complimentary registration and travel support to attend the ABA’s Emerging Issues in Healthcare Conference. Students should check the website for updates on future competitions.

Skills Competitions

National Health Law Moot Court (Southern Illinois University)

This competition is typically held annually in November. Students should check the website for more information. 

National Health Law Transactional Moot Court Competition (Loyola Chicago University School of Law)

The next competition will be held virtually on March 26, 2021. Winners receive cash prizes and complementary to the AHLA annual meeting or the Fundamentals of Health Law program. 

Health Law Regulatory & Compliance Competition (University of Maryland)

The competition is typically held in February. Students should check the website for more information.

Academic Fellowships

Health Law Fellowships

Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL) Fellowship - Harvard University

The Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School invites its 2020 round of applications for postdoctoral fellows in pharmaceutical law and health services research.

O’Neill Institute Law Fellowship - Georgetown University Law Center

The O’Neill Institute Post-Graduate Fellowship is a full-time one-year fellowship intended to expose Fellows to a diversity of substantive areas including health and human rights, global health and governance, infectious disease, non-communicable disease, global health security, and the regulatory environment, among others. 

Presidential Management Fellows

If/When/How – Fellowship Program

This policy-focused fellowship is designed to create entry points into the reproductive health, rights, and justice fields and to enhance legal and advocacy capacity at organizations working to advance reproductive justice for all people.

National Institute for Reproductive Health – Legal Fellow

The Legal Fellowship will work closely with the National Institute’s Policy and Strategic Partnerships Team, providing legal research and policy analysis to support our partnerships with organizations throughout the country working to advance reproductive health, rights, and justice, with a particular emphasis on abortion access. 

National Women’s Law Center

The Center recruits rising third-year law students, judicial clerks, and other recent law school graduates interested in applying for Skadden, Equal Justice Works, ABA Section of Taxation’s Christine A. Brunswick Public Service Fellowship, or other law fellowships to begin in the fall of each year.

Georgetown Law - Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program

Two fellowship opportunities: One type is our WLPPFP Fellowship, which is a 12-month work experience, where Fellows from the United States work on women’s legal issues with a public interest organization, a governmental agency, or as a clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown Law.

The other type is our Leadership & Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellowship, where women’s rights lawyers from Africa earn a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Georgetown Law focusing on international women’s human rights and then participate in a post-graduation summer legal internship experience before returning home to continue advancing women’s rights in their own countries.

Open Society Foundation

Open Society fellows produce work outputs of their own choosing, such as a book, journalistic or academic articles, art projects, a series of convenings, etc. In addition, fellowship cohorts may develop a joint work product of some sort. Fellowship staff will assist cohorts in brainstorming possible outputs if needed.

Justice Catalyst

Justice Catalyst administers one-year, potentially renewable, project-based fellowships for graduating law students, or students completing a post-graduation clerkship, to support innovative public interest work at non-profit organizations. 

Echoing Green

Skadden Fellowship

Skadden will award two-year fellowships for 2021 law school graduates, outgoing judicial law clerks, and LLM candidates who want to work in the public interest.

SABA DC (South Asian Bar Assoc. of DC) - Public Interest Fellowship

SABA-DC provides financial assistance in the form of summer fellowships to law students working in the public interest sector for the benefit of the South Asian community and the metropolitan D.C. area.  The public interest sector includes six types of settings: nonprofit organizations; legal services organizations; district attorneys/public defenders; federal, state, and local government; federal and state clerkships/judicial internships; and public service law firms. Can apply to fellowship for any specialty, including health law 

ACLU – Reproductive Freedom Project Fellowship

The Reproductive Freedom Project of the ACLU’s National Office in New York, NY seeks third-year law students and law graduates to apply to be considered for a sponsored fellowship of up to one year, such as Equal Justice Works, Justice Catalyst, or other public interest fellowships to begin in the fall of 2021.

Women’s Law Project – Fellowship Sponsorship

The Women’s Law Project (WLP) seeks a law school graduate to sponsor for post-graduate public interest attorney fellowships offered by the candidate’s law school. WLP will develop the project with the candidate.

Student Groups

If/When/How

Mission - the GW Law chapter of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice supports the national organization’s mission to: transform the law and policy landscape through advocacy, support, and organizing so all people have the power to determine if, when, and how to define, create, and sustain families with dignity and to actualize sexual and reproductive wellbeing on their own terms.

If/When/How Programming
  • Lunch and Learn - Navigating Public Interest & RJ Internships - upper-level students and career counselors give advice about applying to reproductive justice internships
  • Informational Events 
    • Reproductive Health 101 for Lawyers - GW Medical School and GW School of Public Health lecturer Dr. Imershein lead a discussion on the basics of reproductive health as applicable to lawyers going into reproductive justice, direct service, health law, and other areas
    • Hyde Amendment - policy expert(s) will lead an informal discussion on the Hyde Amendment and its impact on reproductive justice
  • Zoom Social and Happy Hour with If/When/How and other Reproductive Organizations - Monthly Zoom social hour for GW Law If/When/How to connect and have casual conversation

Student Health Law Association (SHLA)

Mission - Student Health Law Association (SHLA) supports GW’s Health Law Initiative in order to increase student interest in the growing fields of healthcare and food and drug law. SHLA supports professional development by promoting legal conferences and seminars and sponsoring events that feature attorneys in diverse health and FDA law practice areas. Furthermore, SHLA encourages students to pursue GW’s Health Law Concentration and other related degree offerings.

SHLA Programming
  • Informational Panels 
    • How I Got My 1L Job - Second and Third-Year law students give advice on how to land health law internships.
    • Private Sector Panel - Healthcare and FDA attorneys at law firms talk to students about their legal practice. 
    • Public Sector Panel - Healthcare and FDA attorneys at government agencies and non-profit organizations talk to students about their legal practice.
  • Lunch and Learn - Learn about a particular area of health law over a brown bag lunch with a GW Health Law Professor
  • SHLA Mixer - Hang out with students and recent graduates of student health law organizations at other DC area law schools