The law school application process is a stressful but exciting time. When it was time for me to decide which schools to apply to, I found myself constantly researching law schools and their respective programs, hoping for inspiration and guidance. I had been out of undergrad for a few months working as a legal assistant, and I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but I didn’t necessarily know “what kind.” It seemed to be the question everyone was asking me, and honestly, I didn’t have an answer. But after talking with my family and friends, they suggested I stay on the path that has always interested me, and as it turns out, that path was health care.
Throughout undergrad, I was drawn to internships in health policy, and I even wrote my senior thesis on Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In preparing to apply to law school, I was hearing a lot of buzz about the growing field of health law and decided to look into my options. Upon researching law schools, the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy stood out as a leader in the health law community.
Long story short: I applied to Loyola as a health law fellow and have never looked back. Being from California, having attended college on the East Coast, and having no connections to the Chicago area, I can say without a doubt that the Beazley Institute is what brought me to Loyola. Now that I am here, I can also say that the field of health law is just as challenging and promising as I had been told throughout my application process.
At Loyola, the Beazley Institute offers students, alumni, and health care professionals (not just lawyers) so many opportunities to learn about today’s health law issues. Through its programming and resources, I have joined the Health Law Society and attended Beazley seminars and lectures by professionals in the field. To me, the distinguishing factor in Loyola’s health law program is that it takes seriously the importance of lawyers and medical professionals working together to improve the delivery of health care. I saw this objective play out at this year’s annual symposium entitled “Expanding Access to Health Care: A Critical Examination of Scope of Practice.” This year’s symposium explored whether the expansion of the scope of medical practice is a viable option for increasing the quality of patient care and addressed the primary care shortage and decreasing costs. Events like these have enabled me to gain an edge as a 1L by immersing myself in such a complex and evolving field while in law school so that when I graduate, I can hit the ground running.
If you are interested in health law, even if you have no idea what that really means, it is worth scrolling through the Beazley website. I also recommend the health law legal writing course that is available to 1Ls. This course has exposed me to aspects of health law that I would not have received outside of Loyola. I will be taking Introduction to Health Law next semester where I will learn more about the industry and the intersection between health care and the law.
Gail Jankowski, 1L Ambassador
Questions for Gail about being a Health Law Fellow? Email law-admissions [at] luc [dot] edu and we can put you in touch.