HEALTH AND BIOMEDICAL LAW CONCENTRATION
:
STUDENT PROFILES
Sandra Fay-Richard, MA,
JD '04
Finding a good fit in a graduate education is essential, and that's what
Sandra Fay-Richard found at Suffolk University Law School. Fay-Richard,
who earned her JD in May 2004, holds a master's degree in molecular
biology from the University of Massachusetts. She currently works
in Molecular Pathology at Mass. General Hospital, as a lab manager,
overseeing several grants and managing requests for biological material
transfers to foreign and domestic institutions. She attended Suffolk's
JD program in the evening.
Fay-Richard sought a law degree because
she wanted to apply her technical background in an intellectual
property field, and then took a liking to health law, she says,
taking a few courses in the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration
before settling on future courses for her JD. "I got a lot out of
it," she says, in particular pointing to a biomedical law and public
policy course with Faculty Co-Director and Professor Barry Brown.
Fay-Richard is confident that her health and biomedical law courses have given her a
strong background for her endeavors later on. "People might not realize how much health
law and policy permeate other areas of law, particularly in the intellectual property
field. Boston is home to many universities and biotech companies making important
discoveries in medicine and healthcare. A competent practitioner should be able to
navigate both health policy and intellectual property protection."
As she assesses her goals for the future, Fay-Richard is optimistic. "I think
people often have a very definite path in mind that doesn't always come to fruition,"
she says. "You don't know where you'll end up. I want as much legal diversity as possible
to pair with my science background, and Suffolk Law is giving me that."
Delia Wolf,
MD, MSCI, JD '06
Dr. Delia Wolf wanted
to enhance her career in the field of protection of research 
participants, and she believes that the Health and Biomedical Law
Concentration program at Suffolk Law School will help her to reach
her goal.
Wolf, a Chinese medical
graduate, now Director of the Human Research Quality Improvement
and Human Subjects Protection Program at Massachusetts General Hospital
(MGH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and an Assistant Professor
of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, became interested in medical
ethics upon completion of her Master's Degree in Clinical Investigation
in 1999. She then finished a one-year Fellowship in Medical Ethics
at the Harvard Medical School. "The fellowship not only expanded
my knowledge of ethical theory, but it also helped me to look at
issues from an ethics perspective," says Wolf, who is also one of
the Chairs of the Partners Institutional Review Board (IRB) that
reviews and approves all human research studies conducted at the
MGH and BWH. "My working experiences made me aware of more
legal issues such as breach of confidentiality, breach of contract
and conflicts of interest. These experiences have inspired me to
expand my role and career in the field of human subjects protection
through legal training. It has been an extraordinary learning experience
for me," Wolf says of her second year in the four-year evening
program at Suffolk.
After completion of her legal training, "my goal is to apply both my medical
and legal expertise to the protection of research integrity in major academic
medical centers," Wolf says, and "I am also interested in applying my expertise
and experience to litigation of disputes involving complex health and biomedical
legal issues."
Lynn Zuchowski, JD '03
It might seem that Lynn Zuchowski already had a very credible career when she went
looking to change it. But it wasn't enough for the native of western New York state,
who chose Suffolk University Law School to help her make the change. Immediately
before coming to law school, Zuchowski was working in molecular biology, with an
undergraduate degree from Colgate University and her master's degree from Harvard
University. And for 10 years prior to that, she worked in research for the
pharmaceutical industry. "But without a PhD in the biotech industry, you hit
the glass ceiling," she says. "I wasn't getting enough responsibility, so I
asked myself 'do I want to get a PhD or a different degree?' I decided I didn't
want to do lab work anymore, so I decided a law degree would be better."
Zuchowski obtained her law degree from Suffolk University last spring, taking a
variety of courses in the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration along the way.
"I'd had an interest in biomed health law, which is why I went to law school," she
says, adding that while at Suffolk she took courses in managed care, health law,
biomedicine and administrative law.
She now works for Foley Hoag, a major Boston law firm. Zuchowski enjoyed her
Suffolk experience and found the courses in health and biomedical law particularly
challenging and helpful. "The classes were very intriguing, in particular the
biomedical ethical courses," she says. "There are really a small number of attorneys
who do that." During her short tenure at Foley Hoag, she has worked in the
litigation department, while also completing some work in the health care area.
Overall, Zuchowski finds it "exciting to have a whole new career" and is grateful
for the experience provided by Suffolk Law School.
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