Law School will host symposium on healthcare litigation Nov. 11

October 27, 2011

Implementing national healthcare reform will be the topic when lawyers, government officials and academics convene at the University of Richmond Law Review’s annual Allen Chair Symposium Nov.  11.

This year’s event – “Everything But the Merits: Analyzing the Procedural Aspects of the Healthcare Litigation” – will bring together legal experts from across the country to analyze the unique issues stemming from state challenges  to the constitutionality of President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The symposium, produced with assistance from Richmond law professors Carl Tobias and Kevin Walsh, will preview the procedural issues the U.S. Supreme Court might review in the months to come.

Guest speakers will include: E. Duncan Getchell Jr., solicitor general of Virginia; Bradley W. Joondeph, Santa Clara University School of Law professor and creator of the ACA litigation blog; William F. Brockman, acting solicitor general of Maryland; and Walsh, who has been widely quoted as an expert on healthcare reform.

“There has been a lot of debate on the constitutionality of President Obama’s national healthcare mandate,” said Walsh, who has written several amicus briefs on the Virginia and Florida challenges to the ACA. “But the litigation over the healthcare legislation has raised crucial procedural questions that will be debated at this symposium.”

Session topics include:

  • The role of states as litigants in the mandate litigation
  • Defining the scope and legal effect of the challenges to the individual mandate
  • Situating the mandate litigation in the broader regulatory and political landscapes

The symposium will run from 8:30 a.m.– 3:45 p.m. CLE credits are pending. To register, visit law.richmond.edu or call 804-289-8216. A live webcast will be available on the University of Richmond School of Law website for those who cannot attend.

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