A CONCENTRATED CERTIFICATE PROGRAM INCORPORATING EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION: HELPING STUDENTS PREPARE FOR A CAREER IN THE DYNAMIC AREA OF HEALTH LAW

Acknowledgements: This paper relies on the history and research that was laid out in the Health Law Certificate Proposal written by Professor Charity Scott and submitted through Georgia State University for approval of the health law certificate. Professor Scott is the founding director of the Center for Health, Law & Society at the Georgia State University College of Law and led efforts to create a health law certificate. Without her vision, leadership, and efforts, there would be no health law certificate and, therefore, this paper would not exist. Christine Lee, a Georgia State Law student, helped with transforming the proposal into a paper and conducting supplemental research. Luke Donohue, a Georgia State Law student, provided additional research and critical feedback. We are indebted to each of them for their efforts.


Introduction
As law practice becomes both increasingly more complex and more specialized, law students must choose how to direct their course of study.In the U.S., practice in the area of health law, in particular, requires lawyers to be familiar with a wide range of federal, state, and administrative rules and regulations that affect all aspects of the healthcare industry.Lawyers practicing in this area also must be able to engage in complex processes and procedures to serve the needs of clients.Law students who wish to practice in the area of health law must acquire knowledge, skills, and values that are necessary for them to have an understanding of the legal issues that challenge lawyers and that prepare them for life-long learning in this rapidly growing and changing industry.This paper explores how a concentrated health law certificate program provides students a focused path through the law curriculum.Not only does the program require students to take a range of health law courses, but students take multiple courses that incorporate experiential learning, including clinics, externships, and other courses that integrate clinical teaching methodology.This article highlights the development of a health law certificate program, designed to guide students through the law curriculum to choose among the most beneficial courses for a health law practice.To identify the necessary courses, health law faculty and health law practitioners first explored the knowledge, skills and values that a successful health law practitioner needs.This article also examines the process of developing and implementing the certificate program.It also explores how the integration of experiential learning into multiple courses required by the certificate allows students to gain insight into the practical realities of a variety of careers in health law and to direct their study in alignment with their chosen career path.The involvement and integration of experiential learning as a strong component of the program allows clinical educators to have a positive impact on the overall curricular experience of students receiving the certificate.Moreover, the infusion of clinical pedagogy throughout the health law curriculum benefits not only students who are enrolled in the certificate program but any law student who elects to enroll in any of the numerous health law courses.The success of this focused curricular program demonstrates that this model is effective, can be adapted to other areas of law, 2 and provides a more coherent and integrated education for future law students who will become the practitioners of tomorrow.

Background
In the United States, a law degree is a three-year post-graduate course of study.The first year typically is devoted to required courses covering a range of foundational legal areas (e.g., torts, property, contracts, criminal law, and legal research and writing), whereas the 2 Since the inception of the Health Law Certificate, GSU Law has modeled three additional certificate programs after it.The school now offers Certificates in Environmental and Land Use Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Public Interest Law and Policy.Like the Health Law Certificate, other certificate programs require students enrolled in the programs to take experiential courses to satisfy the certificate requirements.
second and third years provide greater freedom for students to choose their course of study.There may be a few required courses (e.g., Georgia State law requires that all students take a specialized course in litigation, "Lawyering: Advocacy") and recommended courses (e.g., topics that are tested on the bar exam, a necessary precursor to licensure), but, overall, the second and third year curriculum is primarily directed by student choices.Students may base their choices on disparate factors ranging from area of interest, scheduling convenience, or affinity for a particular professor.This relatively unfocused approach is largely unchanged from the model Langdell introduced at Harvard Law School over 100 years ago, and has been the subject of substantial criticism and calls for reform in recent years. 3Proposed legal education reforms have included calls for the elimination of the third year 4 but mostly have focused on providing more coherence to the three year course of study. 5he move for reform has been advanced by influential reports, books and commentary over the last decade, including Best Practices, the Carnegie Report and Building on Best Practices. 6For purposes of this paper, we focus on a primary theme of the reform movement: the need for law schools to provide integrated learning and learning in The core insight behind the integrative strategy [in contrast to the traditional additive strategy of legal curriculum reform by simply adding new courses] is that effective educational efforts must be understood in holistic rather than atomistic terms.For law schools, this means that, far from remaining uncontaminated by each other, each aspect of the legal apprenticeship -the cognitive, the practical, and the ethical-social -takes on part of its character for the kind of relationship it has with the others. 8ver the last ten years, Georgia State law school has reflected on the Carnegie Report and other calls for reform, assessed its curricular offerings, and implemented a number of initiatives designed to improve the educational experiences of students.The full extent of these efforts is beyond the scope of this paper; rather, this paper will describe the Georgia State law school's health law certificate as a model for providing the kind of direction and integrated learning experiences that have been called for.In doing so, we connect the features of our program to best practices in legal education, as well as the needs of the legal profession.

The Development of a Health Law Certificate
By 2011, Georgia State Law had grown its health law faculty to several professors, representing substantial breadth, depth, and expertise in this rapidly growing area.9 Informed by recent critical analyses of legal education, 10 the Georgia State health law judgment."Id. at 3-4, 7. Building on Best Practices also addresses the importance of providing curricular pathways and concentrations to reinforce student learning and build connections across courses.Building on Best Practices, supra note 2, at 52-58.faculty decided to develop a health law certificate program to allow students to develop core competencies in health law through a coherent curricular path.The faculty performed its analysis of what should be required with particular attention to the Carnegie Report 11 and Best Practices. 12These resources emphasized the importance of providing students a well-rounded curriculum that includes simulation, 13 as well as real- 12 Best Practices, supra note 2. 13 Simulation-based courses are "courses in which a significant part of the learning relies on students assuming the roles of lawyers and performing law-related tasks in hypothetical situations under supervision and with opportunities for feedback and reflection."Best Practices, supra note 1, at 179.Simulation-based courses can achieve educational goals more effectively and efficiently and develop professional skills and understandings essential for practice.See Best Practices, supra note 2 at 179-88.ABA Standard 304(a) states, "A simulation course provides substantial experience not involving an actual client, that (1) is reasonably similar to the experience of a lawyer advising or representing a client or engaging in other lawyering tasks in a set of facts and circumstances devised or adopted by a faculty member…2016-17 ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools available at https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/misc/legal_education/Standards/2016_2017_standards_chapter3.authcheckdam.pdf.
world experiential learning opportunities,14 thus integrating the teaching of theory, doctrine, and practice. 15The faculty also noted that a 2011 ABA House of Delegates resolution echoed these recommendations in directing the ABA to "take steps to assure that law schools . . .provide the knowledge, skills, values, habits and traits that make up the successful modern lawyer . . .[and] implement curriculum programs intended to develop practice ready lawyers, including . . .capstone and clinical courses that include client meetings and court appearances." 16The Georgia State health law faculty heeded these recommendations in developing the framework for the health law certificate program.The incorporation of experiential education was a central value in the development of the certificate program.
The development process was an iterative one.After identifying key knowledge, skills, and values for the proposed program, the health law faculty mapped the health law curriculum to identify the knowledge, skills, and values taught in each existing health law course in the curriculum.The faculty studied the map to ensure that a certificate student would achieve an appropriate distribution of desired outcomes based upon the proposed certificate requirements.Additionally, local attorneys, representing a wide range of health law practices, including major law firms, hospitals, state and federal government agencies, and legal services organizations, participated in focus groups to provide feedback on the proposal to ensure that students obtaining a certificate through GSU's program would be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and values to be effective legal professionals in the health law field.
Four key conceptual themes underlie the certificate program.First, health law is a broad, general field of practice.Competent health lawyers are usually generalists, working in, among other things, corporate, administrative and regulatory, tort, contract, and employment law.As generalists, their skills are applied to the demands of diverse legal work, which encompasses a broad array of general and specific laws affecting health and health-related organizations in a wide range of public and private practice settings.
Second, contemporary health lawyers need to have a solid and well-rounded background and be able to work with professionals from other non-legal, health-related disciplines.
Third, trends in legal education favor structuring a curriculum not only to integrate doctrinal knowledge and theories, but also to promote development of sound lawyering skills, effective interpersonal behaviors, and professional values, ethics, and habits. 1717 Carnegie Report, supra note 1, at 27-28, 145-47.The Carnegie Report refers to three domains (knowledge, skills, and values) as the three "apprenticeships," which can be summarized in its discussion of moving toward an integrative model of education for law schools."Law school should provide an initiation into all three aspects of that development [of professional competence and identity] . . .When thinking of the law school curriculum as a three-part model, whose parts interact with an influence each other, those elements are: 1.The teaching of legal doctrine and analysis, which provides the basis for professional growth 2. Introduction to the several facets of practice included under the rubric of lawyering, leading to acting with responsibility for clients 3. A theoretical and practical emphasis on inculcation of the identity, values, and dispositions consonant with the fundamental purposes of the legal profession." Finally, while the certificate program uses the health field as a lens and context for studying law, the required curriculum offers a foundation in knowledge, skills, and values that is readily transferable to other legal fields.Students generally seek a health law certificate to acquire focused preparation for a career in health law.However, even students who do not plan a career in health law have recognized the benefits of following a prescribed curricular path the develops transferrable skills.Participating in the certificate program promotes students' resourcefulness and their ability to adapt successfully to rapidly changing legal, political, social, technological, and global environments, regardless of their ultimate area of practice.
Core Competencies in Health Law.To determine the specific course requirements of the certificate program, the health law faculty first identified the core competencies in health law each student should develop."Competency" does not mean mastery, but rather, at a minimum, an initiation to the fundamentals of the subject matters, skills, and values that are considered central to an understanding of and orientation to the health law field.The Id. at 194.This three-part framework of competencies in knowledge, skills, and values has also been adopted in the recent draft of ABA Standard 302 on "Learning Outcomes."See supra, note 7. It is also reflected in the ABA's Report that accompanies its recently-adopted Resolution, supra note 11 ("We used to think that being a good lawyer simply meant knowing the law.Today, we are more likely to think that good lawyers know how to do useful things with the law to help solve client problems.Society has shifted from a static understanding of professional competence as memorized knowledge to a dynamic conception of lawyers adding value through judgment and their ability to manage to solve complex problems . . .The basic impulse [in legal education reform] is two-fold: to sharpen both our understanding of the competencies, skills, knowledge, practices and values of a good lawyer and our ability to measure progress toward those goals."Id. at 2-3.These principles are further supported in Building on Best Practices, supra note 2.
faculty also agreed that development of any of these core competencies -particularly in skills and values --does not depend on having specific health law courses to foster them.
Nevertheless, if the faculty deemed a specific knowledge, skill, or value a core competency, then it was imperative to ensure that every certificate student had an opportunity to develop that core competency.Thus, knowledge competencies are typically delivered through the required courses, although they may be reinforced in other courses.
a. Knowledge Competencies: The health law educational program offers foundational subject-matter content that initiates students into the key concepts, theories, doctrines, laws, policies, ethics, systems, and institutions in the health field.With respect to knowledge competencies, reflecting the breadth of the health law field, the faculty identified a wide range of topics (as well as specific U.S. statutes and regulations within those topics) to which every health lawyer should be exposed.These include: (1) access to, payment for, and cost regulation of healthcare in both the private and public sectors; (2) regulation of healthcare providers; and (3) provider and institutional liability to patients.These topics are all addressed, in varying degrees, in two required health law courses -one that primarily addresses provider and institutional liability and the other that primarily addresses healthcare regulation.Students may opt to delve more deeply into these topics through health law electives.
Given that healthcare is a heavily regulated business, any student seeking a career in health law must understand administrative law, which addresses the ability of government to regulate, and corporate law, which addresses the legal structure of business entities that can influence how health care is delivered. 18Finally, the faculty identified exposure to either public health or bioethics as a core competency. 19For this competency, students choose from among several course offerings in either track.While students who elect the public health track may miss exposure to bioethics and vice versa, the faculty agreed to limit the requirements to maximize students' ability to take courses throughout the general law curriculum.Moreover, there is sufficient overlap between the two to feel confident that, in most cases, students will be exposed both topics throughout the various certificate course offerings.
In sum, the knowledge competencies for students enrolled in the certificate program are achieved by requiring two courses in the general law curriculum (administrative law and corporations), two specific courses in the health law curriculum, and one elective course 18 The decision to include administrative law and corporate law as required courses was strongly supported by the health law attorneys consulted while developing the program.Certificate students can use their health law paper to meet their graduation requirement or may do an additional health law paper. 29Most health law topics require research of non-law resources.Accordingly, the required paper allows students to develop their interdisciplinary research skills, as well as their communication skills.The writing requirement also provides an opportunity for health law professors to mentor students as they investigate important issues of health law, and to assist them in seeking publication opportunities as appropriate.Several faculty have helped students to publish in law and non-law venues, which has fostered students' professional development. 30e requirement for experiential education in the health law context allows students to gain insight and develop critical skills and connections needed for a successful health law As with the experiential learning requirements, the values competencies are taught throughout the health law curriculum, as well as through the general law curriculum.
However, our lawyering skills, particularly the clinical courses, play a special role in developing these professional values, providing a context in which these issues become more salient and alive. 32 further instill the professional values critical to a health lawyer, certificate students are also required to participate in fifteen hours of extracurricular activities or attend five approved health law events over a student's second and third years of law school.Such activities can promote many of the core values competencies the faculty identified, including leadership, community-building, developing professional identity, and commitment to pro bono service.This requirement lays the foundation for an actively engaged professional life.Activities that students may use to satisfy this requirement include participation in student activities that have an educational component and 31 The core values-oriented competencies in health law are consistent with the best practice of integrating professionalism throughout the program of instruction and best practices for teaching professionalism generally.See Best Practices, supra note 1, at 79-91, and Building on Best Practices, supra note 1, at 253-80. 32See, e.g.Building on Best Practices, supra note 2 at 203-04, 291-93.
require a significant time commitment, such as moot court, 33 law review, leadership in any student organization, or serving as a research assistant to a professor, the various health-related events sponsored by the various organizations on campus, including our Center for Health, Law & Society, our Student Health Law Association, and our partners in the business school and public health, and externally sponsored health law-related events, including State Bar programs and health-related service activities. 34

d. Additional considerations
In developing the requirements, the number of required credits was limited to ensure that students had the freedom to explore other topics in the general law curriculum or to dig more deeply into the rich health law course offerings. 35Accordingly, the certificate program requires only 16-21 credits, depending on courses selected.A minimum grade 33 For example, GSU health law certificate students have participated in health law competitions, including the University of Maryland Compliance & Regulatory Competition, the SIU National Health Law Moot Court Competition, and the Loyola Health Law Transactions Competition. 34The Center for Law, Health & Society regularly sponsors events that educate about current issues in health law.For example, recent Center events have addressed U.S. Supreme Court cases involving the Affordable Care Act, state legalization of medical marijuana, and laws regarding end-of-life decisionmaking.The Center also sponsors students to attend two annual continuing legal education events in health law and encourages students to attend the bar's health law events.These activities provide greater exposure to health law as experienced by those in practice and an opportunity to network with those in the field.The Center and Student Health Law Association (SHLA) also regularly bring practicing attorneys and others working in health law to campus to discuss their work in the profession that help students appreciate the various options available in health law and what the work entails.Volunteer opportunities, from working with asylum seekers to blood drives, instill a commitment to serving the community that is an essential component of the profession, 35 GSU law regularly offers over 20 health law courses.http://clhs.law.gsu.edu/education/health-lawcourses/point average (GPA) is not required for a student to enter the certificate program so as not to discourage students who may have found their first year of law school particularly challenging and who are fully capable of overcoming those challenges in their upperdivision years, especially where they may be motivated by a specific interest in the health law field.However, to ensure that certificate represents a level of achievement and education to the legal community, to qualify for a certificate a student must attain a minimum GPA (of 3.0) for all courses taken in satisfaction of the certificate requirements and the writing requirement.The minimum GPA for health law courses ensures that the certificate is evidence of a level of achievement in health law study.

The Benefits of the Health Law Certificate Program
The health law certificate program provides multiple benefits to our students.The primary benefit is to provide a thoughtful pathway through the curriculum, designed to provide students with an integrated and progressive learning experience in the area of health law. 36The combination of required courses, elective courses, experiential learning, and additional activities gives students necessary guidance through the curriculum that allows them to take advantage of the second and third years of law school in a way that meets their individual learning goals and better prepares them for their careers.An 36 Carnegie Report, supra note 1; Best Practices, supra note 2.
integrated health law curriculum offers students the opportunity for spiral learningbuilding and reinforcing the basics as they progress through courses and applying the core competencies in more advanced contexts. 37A secondary benefit is the commitment of the health law faculty to giving enhanced advisement to certificate students.Although all students in our law school are assigned a faculty mentor in their first year, these assignments are done administratively and do not reflect students' educational and career interests.Thus, students may not take full advantage of these relationships.
Assignment of a curricular-specific advisor through the certificate program can provide more targeted guidance.Through the health law certificate program, students have faculty available not only to assist them in designing course packages in health law and from the JD program generally that match their intellectual and employment interests, but also to provide guidance on career paths, and to suggest opportunities for future professional development, such as dual-degree programs and fellowships in health law. 38ile not a primary reason for adopting the program, certificate programs with a robust experiential component can also be a way to distinguish a law school and attract students 37 An integrated curriculum has three parts that interact and influence each other.Best Practices, supra note 2, at 255.Those elements are first, the teaching of legal doctrine and analysis; second, introduction to the several facets of practice included under the rubric of lawyering; and third, a theoretical and practical emphasis upon inculcation of the identity, values, and dispositions consonant with the fundamental purposes of the legal profession.Id. 38 The Georgia State College of Law offers multiple dual-degree programs, including programs in health administration and business and in public health.(See http://clhs.law.gsu.edu/education/dual-degreeprograms/).Dual-degree programs can help develop additional domain knowledge and interdisciplinary skills that can be a competitive advantage in an increasingly complex practice environment.They also can provide contacts with potential employers or clients from those fields through involvement in the other departments' professional and student organizations, activities, and networking opportunities.
who are interested in a school's existing curricular strength.For example, many students report that the reason they chose to attend Georgia State Law over other law schools is the HeLP Clinic and/or the health law certificate program.
The Carnegie Report notes the importance of on-going coordination among faculty at a law school in order to develop an integrated curriculum. 39To ensure genuine integration, the health law faculty strives to reinforce in their respective courses the knowledge, skills, and values that have been identified as core, and to build on these domains across the health law curriculum.has changed dramatically over the past several decades, and it is expected to continue to change in response to changes in the delivery of health care in America and other external forces.For example, after the certificate program began, the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) issued recommendations for developing a health law foundation for law students. 41For the most part, GSU's required classes align with the AHLA's recommendations with respect to topics required to develop a foundation for health law students. 42However, there are a few health law topics not covered in the required courses.For example, the required courses do not directly cover life sciences and the Food and Drug Administration, but students may choose among electives that do. 43The AHLA also suggested requiring a course in labor and employment, 44 which is not currently required for the GSU certificate.However, the law curriculum contains a variety of labor and employment courses relevant to health law settings that students may take, and the requirements are sufficiently flexible to permit students to take such a class.However, GSU will consider whether changes are necessary in light of the AHLA recent recommendations.If GSU does not change its requirements, the AHLA's recommendations can be incorporated into student advisement to provide better guidance to them about what courses employers might like to see.Similarly, the AHLA 41 AHLA MANUAL, supra note 13.
recommended covering the importance and limitations of public health law, including laws relating to vaccinations, tobacco control, and others. 45While these topics are covered in several of the public health and in some of the bioethics offerings, not all certificate students are guaranteed to study these topics.Requirements could be revised, or GSU could offer a blended bioethics and public health course that ensures coverage for all students.Periodic assessment of offerings provides the opportunity to make appropriate changes and keep pace with the knowledge, skills, and values students need.
Although the certificate program is only entering its fifth year, the curriculum has already been reviewed to ensure that it is meeting the promises made through the program.
Specifically, faculty have reassessed whether GSU is delivering core knowledge, skills, and values in each course and across courses and whether changes are necessary based upon this review and on student feedback.Certificate students are surveyed annually.
While these responses have not resulted in substantive changes, they have highlighted some areas to change to improve the student experience, such as scheduling courses to facilitate completion of the certificate, especially in conjunction with our dual-degree programs.GSU continues to seek input from the legal community, which guides our assessment of how to respond to the AHLA recommendations.On-going reflection and 45 Id. at 13.The importance and limitations of public health law, including mandatory vaccinations, tobacco control, wellness programs, and emergency preparedness/quarantine powers.reflected and reinforced across courses.The program also promotes the habits of the reflective practitioner, encourages the skills of self-awareness and self-critique, and fosters commitment to life-long learning, and professional and community engagement. 46Honors are awarded to students who earn a GPA of 3.6 or higher in their health law courses (required courses and electives).
context.Embracing this concept, which was one of central tenets of Best Practices, the Carnegie Report explained: The key idea in [Best Practices] is that the findings of the learning sciences have converged on what the authors call "context-based education" [citation omitted].The report's thesis: 'Students cannot become effective legal problem-solvers unless they have opportunities to engage in problem-solving activities in hypothetical or real legal contexts' [citation omitted].We concur with this thesis. 7 It is also supported by the 2014 recommendations by the American Health Lawyers Association regarding health law curricula which were issued after the launch of our certificate program.THE AMERICAN HEALTH LAW ASSOCIATION, THE AHLA HEALTH LAW CURRICULUM MANUAL 9 (2014) (hereinafter AHLA MANUAL).The American Health Lawyers Association is the U.S.'s largest educational organization devoted to legal issues in the health industry with active members who practice in law firms, government, in-house settings and academia, and who represent physicians, hospitals and health systems, health maintenance the health law offerings in either public health or bioethics.20Morein-depthknowledgemay be developed through additional electives in health law, as well as through the skills and values competencies described below.b.Skills Competencies: The health law certificate program offers instruction in the key cognitive, behavioral, and lawyering skills needed for successful professional practice and permits students to take advantage of similar offerings in the law program generally.Just as many knowledge competencies are common to lawyers practicing in other legal fields, the skills competencies in health law are common to many fields of These activities augment and complement the more indepth training students receive through lawyering skills courses.GSU also offers several externships that allow students to work in health law practice environments, including with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Veteran's Administration, and the Georgia Hospital Association.Other options include innovative courses that teach doctrine in context through either direct client interaction or simulation.For example, students in law and health equity class learn about the social determinants of health and apply legal analysis of those concepts while working with members of Atlanta neighborhoods to address issues that negatively impact the community's health.
organizations, health insurers, life sciences, managed care companies, nursing facilities, home care providers, and consumers.See http://www.healthlawyers.org/About/Pages/default.aspx.19Allcorecompetenciesand the relationship between core competencies and the requirements for the certificate are found at http://clhs.law.gsu.edu/education/health-law-certificate/core-competencies/.fromlegalpractice.The following core professional skill competencies were identified as critical to health law: (1) critical thinking and analysis, including the ability to apply common law, constitutional law, legislation, and regulations in health law contexts, (2) the ability to undertake both legal research and interdisciplinary research reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of health law; (3) the ability to engage in a range of types of writing in health law contexts, including writing for private and public audiences and for 22 For example, students in the required health care liability course have two experiential learning exercises: an interview of "clients" about end-oflife treatment preferences and drafting of a complaint as a way of applying concepts of institutional liability to a group of institutions not discussed in class.Both assignments have a mandatory self-assessment, which enables these assignments to be used in a larger class (25-50 students).Students in our public health law classes regularly draft legislation or regulation as part of their coursework.Students in GSU's forensic medicine course have conducted mock hearings.externships,orsimulationclasses(e.g., negotiation).24However,GSUoffersanincreasinglyrichrange of lawyering skills options that are health law specific.GSU's medical-legal partnership clinic, the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic, provides students with the opportunity to represent low-income children and their families in a range of cases with the goal of improving the children's health.25Acourse in health legislation and advocacy engages students in working with community partners, developing proposed legislation and shepherding it through the legislative process.26Additionally,studentsenrolled in a new team-based and client-oriented capstone course, the health care transactions practicum, learn how to negotiate and draft deals through realistic simulations carried throughout the semester.The course provides students the opportunity to hone critical skills in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating health care contracts; applying health laws and regulations, conducting due diligence, and collaboration.27It is co-taught by a full-time faculty member together with two local attorneys who focus their practices in health law.The course was designed on the kinds of work that the practicing attorneys wished their entry-level attorneys knew how to do.28In addition to the lawyering skills course requirement, students further their analytical skills through the certificate writing requirement, which must be based on a health law topic.The law school already requires a research paper as a requirement for graduation.26For a full description of Law and Health Equity, See Incorporating Experiential, p. 81-83.More information about this course is available at: http://clhs.law.gsu.edu/2014/09/09/hands-course-addresseshealth-disparities-local-neighborhoods/.27Seehttp://clhs.law.gsu.edu/2014/11/28/health-car-transactions-course.28Id.
40This requires a level of self-conscious discipline and on-going collective discussion by health law faculty among themselves and with faculty colleagues across Georgia State law to examine opportunities for integrating knowledge, skills, and values in each course and across courses.Having a certificate program and a dedicated faculty to administer it provides motivation and structure for such on-going faculty collaboration to ensure the program's quality and responsiveness to student needs.As part of overall coordination efforts, the center committed to engage in assessments of the certificate program to ensure it continues to meet students' needs.The health law field 39 "Integrating the three parts of legal education would better prepare students for the varied demands of professional legal work.In order to produce such integrative results in students' learning, however, the faculty who teach in the several areas of the legal curriculum must first communicate with and learn from each other. . . .[I]ntegration can flourish only if law schools can consciously organize their emphases through ongoing mutual discussion and learning."Executive Summary, Carnegie Report, supra note 1, at 8, 10.Development of a structured curriculum is also discussed in detail in the book, Building on Best Practices, supra note 1.
40Best Practices also identifies the importance of an engaged, effective faculty.The effectiveness of fulltime and part-time faculty in these types of courses is enhanced by "hiring qualified faculty, providing professional development opportunities, and assigning reasonable workloads."Best Practices, supra note 1, at 178.
reconsideration of the effectiveness of the program is essential to maintaining a quality program and meeting students' needs.The growth of the health law certificate program since its launch in 2012 suggests that GSU has been successful in creating a program that responds to students' needs.In its first year, 7 students completed the requirements of a health law certificate.Enrollment now averages 30 2Ls and 3Ls, with 15 students graduating each year.Of the 40 students completing a health law certificate, 19 have graduated with honors 46 .ConclusionsIn developing a health law certificate program, Georgia State Law sought to incorporate best practices in health law education.Accordingly, the health law certificate program offers an integrated learning experience that reflects and reinforces foundational knowledge, skills, and values across the program and that leverages the strength of offerings in the JD program generally.The program is structured to offer a coherent, progressive learning environment where foundational knowledge, skills, and values are