Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Associate Professor of Law

B.A., Columbia University
J.D., University of Georgia


Courses

Torts
Health Law Survey
Health Care Finance


Biographical Information

Elizabeth Weeks Leonard joined the Georgia Law faculty in 2011 as an associate professor teaching Torts and Health Law Survey.  Her additional teaching and research interests include health care financing and regulation, and public health law.

Prior to coming to UGA, Leonard served on the faculty at the University of Kansas School of Law. During her time there, she was honored with the Howard M. and Susan Immel Award for Teaching Excellence and with the Meredith Docking Faculty Scholar Award, a university-wide honor for faculty who have distinguished themselves early in their careers. Additionally, she has served as a visiting professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law and at Georgia Law.

Her scholarship includes articles published in the Hofstra Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, the Washington University Law Review and the North Carolina Law Review. She was also recognized as one of four emerging health law scholars nationwide by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics with its Health Law Scholars Award in 2005.  Leonard currently serves as secretary for the Association of American Law Schools Section on Law, Medicine, and Health Care.

Before entering academe, Leonard worked as an associate in the Health Industry Group at Vinson & Elkins in Houston. She also served as a judicial clerk for Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and for Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips of the Supreme Court of Texas.

Leonard earned her bachelor's degree from Columbia University and her law degree summa cum laude from the University of Georgia, where she was on the Jessup Moot Court Team, was editor-in-chief of the Georgia Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.  Before returning to her hometown of Athens for law school, Leonard was a psychiatric social worker in Chicago.


Publications & Activities

ARTICLES

Employers United: An Empirical Analysis of Corporate Political Speech in the Wake of the Affordable Care Act, 38 J Corp. L. 217 (2013).

Affordable Care Act Litigation: The Standing Paradox, 38 Am. J.L. & Med. 410 (2012).

The Rhetoric Hits the Road: State Challenges to the Affordable Care Act Implementation, 46 U. Rich. L. Rev. 781 (2012).

Introduction: The Prospects for Public Health Reform, 39 J.L. Med. & Ethics 312 (2011).

Can You Really Keep Your Health Plan? The Limits of Grandfathering Under the Affordable Care Act, 36 J. Corp. L. 753 (2011).

Rhetorical Federalism: The Value of State-Based Dissent to Federal Health Reform, 39 Hofstra L. Rev. 111 (2010).

State Constitutionalism and the Right to Health Care, 12 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 1325 (2010).

The Public's Right to Health: When Patient Rights Threaten the Commons, 86 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1335 (2009).

Cooperative Federalism and Health Care Reform: The Medicare Part D "Clawback" Example, 1 St. Louis Univ .J. Health L. & Pol'y 79 (2007).

Failure to Connect: The Massachusetts Plan for individual Health Insurance, 55 Kan L. Rev. 1283 (2007).

Beyond Compensation: Using Torts to Promote Public Health, 10 J. Health Care L. & Pol'y 27 (2007).

Lessons from Katrina: Response, Recovery, and the Public Health Infrastructure, 10 Depaul J. Health Care L. 251 (2007).

After the Catastrophe: Disaster Relief for Hospitals, 85 N.C. L. Rev. 223 - 300 (2006).

Gauging the Cost of Loopholes: Health Care Pricing and Medicare Regulation in the Post-Enron Era, 40 Wake Forest L. Rev. 1215 (2005).

The New Economic Credentialing: Protecting Hospitals from Competition by Medical Staff Members, 65 J. Health L. 247 (2003).

BOOK CHAPTERS

States' Rights: Point/Counterpoint, DEBATES ON U.S. HEALTH CARE REFORM (Sage Publications, Wendy E. Parmet, ed., forthcoming 2011).

Medical-Legal Partnership: Three Voices from the Law School Clinic, VULNERABLE POPULATIONS AND TRANSFORMATIVE LAW TEACHING: A CRITICAL READER 337 (Carolina Academic Press, 2011) (with MaryBeth Musumeci & Brutrinia D. Arellano).

Tort Litigation for the Public's Health, RECONSIDERING LAW AND POLICY DEBATES: A PUBLIC HEALTH PERSPECTIVE 187 (Cambridge Univ. Press, John G. Culhane, ed., 2010).

Beyond Compensation: Using Torts to Promote Public Health, PUBLIC HEALTH: ENFORCEMENT AND LAW 43 (Icfai Univ. Press, A. Sabitha ed., 2008).

BOOK REVIEWS

Invited Contributor, Concurring Opinions blog, Online book review symposium, The Fragmentation of U.S. Health Care: Causes and Solutions (Oxford Univ. Press, Einer Eljuage, ed., 2010), Oct. 12 – 14, 2010, available at http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/category/symposium-health-care-fragmentation

Populations, Public Health, and the Law, by Wendy E. Parmet (Georgetown Univ. Press 2009), 30 J. Legal Med. 427 (2009).

Public Health Law for a Brave New World: Book Review, Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint, by Lawrence O. Gostin (University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2d ed., 2008), 9 Hous. J. Health L. & Pol'y 181 (2009).

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Invited Contributor, Concurring Opinions blog, Affordable Care Act Symposium, March 26 – 28, 2012 (on U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments regarding federal health reform) available at http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2012/03/justice-kennedys-heavy-burden-of-justification.html and http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2012/03/its-all-fun-and-games-until-somebody-loses-an-eye.html

Invited Contributor, New Deal Lessons for the Affordable Care Act: The General Welfare Clause, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY, Feb. 29, 2012, available at http://www.pennjcl.com/heightenedscrutiny/?p=22, reprinted at http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/healthlawprof_blog/2012/03/new-deal-lessons-for-the-affordable-care-act-the-general-welfare-clause.html

Invited Contributor, Essay, Death Panels and the Rhetoric of Rationing, Symposium on Under the Knife: Health Law, Health Care Reform, and Beyond, 12 Nev. L.J. (forthcoming 2012).

Introduction, Symposium, The Role of States in Federal Health Care Reform, 20 Kan. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 181 (2011).

Invited Contributor, Rhetorical Federalism: The Role of State Resistance in Health Care Decisionmaking, J.L. Med. & Ethics 73 (2011) (symposium on Using Law, Policy, and Research to Improve the Public's Health).

Invited Contributor, What I Talk About When I Talk about Health Law, 18 Annals Health L. 9 (2010) (special edition commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy, Loyola University Chicago School of Law).

Invited Contributor, Right to Experimental Treatment: FDA New Drug Approval, Constitutional Rights, and the Public's Health, 37 J.L. Med. & Ethics 269 (2009) (symposium on Pharmaceutical Innovation: Law & the Public's Health).

Teaching Sicko, "Teaching Health Law" column, 37 J.L. Med. & Ethics 139 (2009).

Loopholes: Opportunity, Responsibility, or Liability? "The Ethical Health Lawyer" column, 35 J.L. Med. & Ethics 320 (2007).

Is It Worth the Trouble? The New Policy on Dissemination of Information on Off-Label Use Under the Food and Drug Modernization Act, 54 Food & Drug L.J. 645 (1999).

Note, The Newly Found "Compassion" for Sexually Violent Predators: Civil Commitment and the Right to Treatment in the Wake of Kansas v. Hendricks, 32 Ga. L. Rev. 1261 (1998).

PROCEEDINGS

Affordable Care Act Litigation: The Standing Paradox, Symposium on The American SYMPOSIA Right to Health: Constitutional, Statutory, and Contractual Healthcare Rights in the United States, Am. J. L. & Med., Boston University School of Law, Jan. 28, 2012.

Panel on Litigating Administrative Programs, Then and Now, Symposium on FDR and Obama: Are there Constitutional Law Lessons from the New Deal for the Obama Administration? Penn. J. Const. L., University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 19, 2012.

The Rhetoric Hits the Road: State Challenges to Affordable Care Act Implementation, Symposium on Everything But the Merits: Analyzing the Procedural Aspects of the Healthcare Litigation, University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VA, Nov. 11, 2011.

Can You Really Keep Your Health Plan? The Limitations of Grandfathering Under the Affordable Care Act, Panel on Health Care Reform, J. Corp. L. Symposium on Reregulation and the Business Firm, University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, IA, Feb. 18, 2011.

Symposium on Public Health Reform: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Implications for the Public's Health, 39 J.L. Med. & Ethics 312 (Invited Guest Editor) (2011).

Faculty Convenor, Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy Symposium: The Role of States in Federal Health Care Reform, University of Kansas School of Law, Lawrence, KS, February 11, 2011.

Medical-Legal Partnerships, Symposium, Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE, April 24, 2009.

Moderator, Panel on Health and Reparations, Kan. L. Rev. Symposium: Law, Reparations, and Racial Disparities, University of Kansas School of Law, Oct. 31, 2008.

Tort Litigation for the Public’s Health, Symposium: Public Health Perspectives on Charged Legal Issues, Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE, Oct. 19, 2007.

Cooperative Federalism and Health Care Reform: The Medicare Part D “Clawback” Example, Annual Health Law Symposium: Medicare Modernization Act Update, Saint Louis University School of Law, Saint Louis, MO, March 30, 2007.

Faculty Convenor, Kansas Law Review Symposium: The Massachusetts Plan and the Future of Universal Coverage, University of Kansas School of Law, Lawrence, KS, Nov. 10, 2006.

Gap-Filling, Risk-Pooling, and the “Connector”: Private Market Solutions to Universal Coverage, Kan. L. Rev. Symposium: The Massachusetts Plan and the Future of Universal Coverage, University of Kansas School of Law, Lawrence, KS, Nov. 10, 2006.

After the Catastrophe: Disaster Relief for Hospitals, Symposium: Shaping a New Direction for Law and Medicine: An International Debate on Culture, Disaster, Biotechnology & Public Health, DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, IL, March 31, 2006.

Brief of Professors and Practitioners of Health Law as Amici Curiae in Support of Plaintiffs, States of Texas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, and New Jersey v. Michael Leavitt, 547 U.S. 1204 (2006), (No. 06-135) original, (cert. denied, June 19, 2006).
 

 

 

Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Contact Information

University of Georgia
School of Law
305 Rusk Hall
Athens, GA 30602

Phone: (706) 542-4309
Fax: (706) 542-7404
Email: weeksleo@uga.edu


Administrative Support

Shawn Lanphere
Phone: (706) 542-9357
Email: shawlan@uga.edu


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