Laura Stephens

Biography

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Laura Stephens is a graduate of the BU Law Health Law Program.  Following a judicial clerkship with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island in Providence, she practiced law in the Office of the General Counsel for Mass General Brigham in Boston for 25 years before returning to the BU Law Health Law Program as its inaugural Director. “Health law is one of the most intellectually exciting and meaningful areas of law practice,” she says. “Health lawyers work with clinicians, scientists, and their institutions on some of the most interesting challenges of our time, whether at the bedside or on a worldwide scale. BU Law’s Health Law Program has been at the forefront of health law and public health education for decades, preparing students to be knowledgeable, sophisticated problem-solvers who can help their clients to find practical, effective ways to manage the legal issues that arise in their work.”

In the Mass General Brigham OGC, Professor Stephens’ work included general corporate, regulatory, pharmacy, contracting, compliance, and charitable tax matters. She also worked extensively on patient care matters, including as counsel to ethics committees in MGB hospitals, and in the “attorney on call” system for emergent after-hours patient cases involving treatment decisions and substitute decision-making (such as health care proxies and guardianships). “There was truly never a dull day in the OGC,” she says. “I typically started every morning with a list of to-dos that I would rarely get to until very late in the day. My practice was fast-paced, and it demanded flexibility, tact, and sensitivity to the history and culture of our institutions.”

While in practice, Professor Stephens was also an Interim Co-House Master (now Faculty Dean) at Harvard College. She also advised pre-medical and pre-law students, and was a guest instructor for “Medicine, Law, and Ethics: An Introduction,” a Harvard undergraduate seminar. Her work on various health law topics has appeared in the Boston University Law Review, the American Journal of Law and Medicine, and the Trauma Handbook of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

As director of the Health Law Program, Professor Stephens advises students who are interested in health law, and serves as a faculty liaison to the Health Law Association and the American Journal of Law and Medicine. In addition, Professor Stephens leads the Health Law Survey Colloquium.