Overview

UC Hastings College of the Law was founded in 1878 as the first law department of the University of California, and today is one of the top-rated law schools in the United States. It is located in the Civic Center area of San Francisco – a short distance from IHPS’ Laurel Heights campus.

The UCSF-UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science, and Health Policy launched in 2009. The Consortium’s mission is to support interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of the health sciences and the law through research, education, and service. IHPS provides a home for many Consortium activities at UCSF through the leadership of its Director and Associate Director for Training and Development.

Components of the Consortium

The Consortium includes educational programs, a dynamic research agenda, and service provision related to medical-legal clinics.

Education: The Consortium plans to sponsor 2-3 new master’s degree programs. UC Hastings plans to develop the Master’s of Study in Law (MSL), which will provide an introduction to legal thinking for individuals from the health sciences, and the Master’s of Law (LLM), which will provide health sciences background for JD’s. A master’s degree in Health Policy and Law is being planned; this degree would be granted by UCSF.

Research: The Consortium has facilitated cross-campus research collaborations in a variety of areas such as advance directives and end of life care, ethics and regulation in clinical research, law and neuroscience, and patent and intellectual property in the context of health sciences research. The Consortium supports ongoing translational research by fostering cross-campus collaborations, supporting research infrastructure such as IRB review and grants management, providing access to library and IT resources, and supporting technology transfer activities through research internships and fellowships.

Service: The Consortium’s service activities include the provision of legal services at “one stop” medical-legal clinics. Established clinics serve the homeless as well as pediatrics patients and families. A third clinic focused on elder care is planned for 2012.

Leadership and Organization

Leadership

      David Faigman, JD, Distinguished Professor, UC Hastings - Director

      Jaime King, JD, PhD - Associate Director, UC Hastings

      Daniel Dohan, PhD, IHPS - Associate Director, UCSF

Organization: UC Hastings and UCSF are in the process of developing a formal affiliation agreement between the two campuses to support and expand the Consortium. IHPS serves as a UCSF base for Consortium educational and research activities.