Health Law works with laws relating to health care, medical care providers and patients, drugs, services, malpractice claims, bioethical issues.

Healthcare Law and Elder Law are lately recognized as fast-growing, underfed fields of law, as compared to Bioethics Law which is also fast-growing, but with a much more saturated practicing community. Healthcare Law works in the individual’s access to medical services, and has seen a recent surge in legal activity surrounding the Affordable Care Act. In 2014, there was far more demand for the services of attorneys specializing in Healthcare Law than were available. Taken alongside growing speculation that universal healthcare is soon to come on the legislative docket, Healthcare Law is by most accounts a safe source of legal work for the next five to ten years.

Elder Law is actually a title that includes the needs and rights of the retired and elderly, the mentally or physically disabled, or otherwise medically dependent persons. Lawyers in this field represent clients as they fight to receive the specialized medical services that they need, improve their quality of life, or negotiate personal and monetary relationships with their loved ones. Elder Law experienced a major rise in activity in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but response to the need was slow because many cases are hard-fought and Elder Law isn’t known for career-changing “big break” cases like Tobacco Law or Product Liability. Even today though, the Elder Law community is relatively admissive of young new attorneys and offers plenty of promise for the establishment of a long-term career.

The opportunities and promise of these foci within Health Law can be distinguished from a field such as Medical Malpractice Law, with its fairly saturated legal community and, according to practicing attorneys, may soon become outmoded with the automation and simplification of medical procedures. Students are still graduating from law school with their eyes set on medical malpractice, but there is consensus that medical malpractice is not suitable for young attorneys to bank their careers on in the long term.