Health Law Certificate

Pitt Law’s Health Law Program, one of the oldest in the country, provides students with a basic grounding in the healthcare field, complemented by clinical experience and more in-depth study of advanced topics and closely related areas of law. Students are encouraged to obtain the same broad background in law expected of all graduates from Pitt Law. 

The Health Law Program provides students with a strong foundation in health law that will enable them to practice in various contexts, including law firms, health care management firms and insurers, government, and health care institutions. A combination of classroom and skills components acquaints students with everything from complex business and legal transactions to bioethics and patient care issues to the variety of legal issues that arise in the operation of a healthcare institution. Students gain hands-on experience in these areas through their work in the Law School's clinics, externships, and summer jobs available in the health care setting.

Curriculum

Requirements  Name of Course
1 Required Upper Level Course
  • Health Law & Policy (3 Credits)

2 Core Elective Courses

    • Bioethics and Law
    • Health Care Business Transactions
    • Public Health Law
    • Health Care Fraud, Abuse & Compliance

    At Least 1 Additional Elective

      • Administrative Law
      • Bioethics and Law
      • Biotechnology Law
      • Business Planning, Entrepreneurship & Technology
      • Commercializing New Technologies
      • Current Issues in Health Law *beginning Fall 2024
      • Elder Law Seminar
      • FDA (Food & Drug Adm) Law & Policy
      • Health Care Business Transactions
      • Health Care Fraud, Abuse & Compliance
      • Health Justice Seminar
      • Implicit Bias in Health Care
      • Information Privacy: Law and Practice
      • Law of Disability Discrimination (The)
      • Mental Health Law 
      • Nonprofit Tax Exempt Organizations
      • Public Health Law
      • Reproductive Rights

      2 Credits Minimum in a Skills Course

        • DC Externship
        • Elder Law Clinic
        • Health Law Clinic
        • Health Law Transactional Competition
        • Health Law-related externship
        • Implicit Bias in Health Care
        • Law in Public Health Practice (GSPH)

        *Paper in satisfaction of upper-level writing requirement

        Additional Related Courses: Other Graduate-Level Courses

        Students may take a maximum of 6 credits of graduate-level courses outside the School of Law for credit toward the Health Law Certificate with permission of the program director.  Especially relevant courses are those offered by the Department of Health Services Administration in the Graduate School of Public Health, the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, and the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie-Mellon University.