Health law clients are often focused on the impact that their initiatives can have, and genuinely care about contributing to a greater cause. Because health law involves such a wide range of legal practice areas and health policy will remain an important public policy issue, health lawyers can expect to experience a steady stream of work.
- CONS:
Some health law clients may have established budgets and fee sensitivities for working with legal advisers. In these cases, optimal time management and prioritization must be applied, to maximize the legal services provided for the client, while ensuring appropriate fees for work completed by the adviser. The socio-economic and/or political challenges inherent in a health law practice are usually big and complex. Legal solutions are often used as "blunt instruments" to move things forward; however, optimal results can be difficult to achieve. Navigating the grey areas within health legislation. Provid- ing a definitive answer to a legal issue can be difficult be- cause the applicable law may be unclear, inconsistent, and is constantly changing. There are not very many lawyers or law firms that practise health law, and therefore it can sometimes be difficult to find peer support.
MARTINA MUNDEN Patterson Law (Truro, N.S.)
+ PROS:
The combination of ethics with law takes the practice outside the typical law framework — it provides for an interesting and challenging practice. There are many components of health law, which provide a great deal of variety to the practice. It is never boring or repetitive. The opportunity to work in various sectors — law firms, in-house counsel to hospitals and health boards, govern- ment (both federal- and provincial-level policy issues), academia. Health law is a smaller practice area, which means that you get to know other practitioners in the field quite well.
- CONS:
In working for hospitals and health boards many issues that involve patient care need to be dealt with on an emergency basis. This can be quite stressful. Doctors don't like lawyers! The opportunities to maintain a full-time health law prac- tice in private practice in Nova Scotia (and possibly other smaller provinces as well) are somewhat limited.
Martin's Annual Criminal Code, 2009, Student Edition
www.canadalawbook.ca 44 S EPTEMBER 2008 C ANADIAN Lawy er 4STUDENTS
