Health Law and Policy Clinic

Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Health Law and Policy Clinic at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School (CHLPI).

Ms. Shachar focuses her scholarship on law and health policy, in particular the regulation of access to care for vulnerable individuals, the use of telehealth and digital health products, and the application of public health ethics to real world questions. Her work has been published in leading health and law journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Nature Medicine, and the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, and she has been interviewed by major media outlets, such as BBC News, Politico, CNN, and Slate. She has co-edited several books, including “Innovation and Protection: The Future of Medical Device Regulation,” “Consumer Genetics: Ethical and Legal Considerations of New Technologies,” “Disability, Health, Law, and Bioethics,” “Transparency in Health and Health Care in the United States,” and “COVID-19 and the Law.” She also has authored amicus briefs submitted to the United States Supreme Court on health care and access to care issues.

Previously, Ms. Shachar was the Executive Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. During her time at the Petrie-Flom Center, she was responsible for oversight of the Center’s sponsored research portfolio, event programming, fellowships, student engagement, development, and a range of other projects and collaborations. During her tenure, she designed, recruited for, and launched both the Center’s Health Care General Counsel Roundtable and the Center’s Advisory Board. She was also involved heavily with the center’s Project on Precision Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and the Law, and its Diagnosing in the Home Initiative.

Ms. Shachar was previously a Clinical Instructor on Law at the Health Law and Policy Clinic, where she helped lead CHLPI’s access to care and Affordable Care Act implementation work. Ms. Shachar focused on analyzing and translating health policy issues and opportunities for a broad range of audiences, including many federal and state-level health policy coalitions. Ms. Shachar also practiced health care law at Ropes & Gray, LLP in Boston, Massachusetts.

Ms. Shachar clerked for Hon. Jacques L. Wiener of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Shachar graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She studied Bioethics and Religion at Wellesley College.

Kevin Costello is the Senior Associate Director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation and directs the Center’s litigation efforts. Prior to coming to CHLPI, Kevin was in private practice for eight years, most recently as a principal at Klein Kavanagh Costello, LLP. Kevin’s practice involved complex litigation in the fields of housing, health care, civil rights, antitrust and consumer law. He has been appointed by federal courts across the country to represent classes in Multi-District Litigation, as well as in nationwide class action litigation. Kevin has brought lawsuits against major banks for broken promises arising from the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program, challenged the broadcast blackout restrictions of Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League and fought against the practices of law firms and banks in Massachusetts that improperly foreclosed on financially vulnerable homeowners. Kevin was also part of the team that litigated a series of cases uncovering systemic racial discrimination in the mortgage lending field. Prior to entering private practice, Kevin was a staff attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, helping seniors navigate the health care system. In this role, he fought to ensure that his low-income clients were treated fairly in the roll-out of the Medicare prescription drug benefit and litigated to enforce their rights in various public benefit and health care systems. Mr. Costello is an honors graduate of both Boston College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He served as law clerk to both the Hon. Joseph H. Rodriguez of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Hon. Francis X. Spina of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Katie is a Clinical Instructor at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School. Katie joined the Center in 2014 and currently focuses her work on the Center’s whole-person care initiatives, including the Center’s Food is Medicine project. In her work on these initiatives, she has had the opportunity to work with community-based organizations, state agencies, health care providers, and coalitions to develop strategies to increase access to innovative services such as Food is Medicine interventions. Prior to joining the Center, Katie was an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP. She is a licensed member of the Massachusetts Bar.

Erika joined the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School in 2022 as a Clinical Instructor in the Health Law and Policy Clinic.  Prior to joining HLPC, she was a Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society in New York City for nearly five years, where she represented clients, conducted class action litigation, and led policy advocacy on a wide range of issues including access to benefits, medical service denials, discrimination in health care, and the reduction and elimination of medical debt and Medicaid overpayments.  Prior to working at The Legal Aid Society, Erika was a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow and a Reproductive Rights & Health Legal Fellow at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C.  She has published scholarly articles in the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly and the St. Louis University Law Journal.  She is a licensed member of the New York State bar.

Elizabeth joined the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation in 2022.  Prior to joining CHLPI, Elizabeth worked as an Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.  There, Elizabeth represented a variety of state agencies, including MassHealth, in institutional reform and other litigation.  Elizabeth also has experience working in a medical-legal partnership, where she provided direct legal services to low-income clients with chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS and mental illness.  Her work spanned a variety of areas, including legal issues related to Medicare, Medicaid, and the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

Elizabeth clerked for the Hon. Margot Botsford of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.  She earned her JD from the University of California, Berkeley Law School, and her BA from Williams College.  She is a licensed member of the Massachusetts Bar.

Rachel joined the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation in July 2018 as a Clinical Fellow in the Health Law and Policy Clinic. Rachel graduated from UCLA School of Law in May 2016 as a member of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, and with a Master of Public Health degree from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. During law school, she worked with projects and organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, the National Health Law Program, and the Los Angeles HIV Law & Policy Project, and co-chaired UCLA’s Health Law Society. Immediately prior to joining the Center, Rachel was an associate at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, focusing on health care regulatory and compliance matters.

Maryanne Tomazic (she/her) is a clinical instructor at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School.  She is a public health lawyer, with a focus on health care policy, private health insurance, health care nondiscrimination, and access to gender-affirming and sexual/reproductive health care. Prior to law school, Maryanne worked at the intersection of health care reform and reproductive justice at Raising Women’s Voices (Community Catalyst), served as an elected official on a board of education, and volunteered as an emergency medical technician for many years. Her work is also informed by her experience growing up with immigrant family and her academic training at Boston University School of Law (Health Law), Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (History and Ethics of Public Health), and Swarthmore College (Biology). She is licensed in New York.

Anu joined CHLPI as a Clinical Fellow on the Health Care Access team in 2023. Anu is a former physician who is focused on health equity and access issues. While in law school Anu worked on a variety of health law justice projects including one that educated providers about their rights regarding police questioning in hospital and healthcare settings. Additionally, Anu helped develop a policy recommendation on behalf of Medicaid AABD clients in Illinois which advocates for the elimination of the asset test requirement. Anu also coauthored a note and cohosted a podcast exploring the effects of social media on direct-to-consumer advertising in the pharmaceutical space on patient drug choice.

As a physician Anu focused on clinical research directed at improving hospital admission processes for hematology patients. Anu was also part of a team that worked on creating community-based mental health services for immigrant populations. Anu hopes to use the lessons she learned as a physician to better inform her practice as a health law attorney focused on improving access and equity in our health care system. Anu has an MD from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and a JD with a focus on health law and compliance studies from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Sara joined the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation in 2023 as a Health Law and Policy Clinical Fellow with the Whole Person Care Team. Sara holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School,  where her focus was on health and technology law policy. During her LL.M., Sara served as a Research Assistant at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, working for the Digital Home Health Initiative at the Center. She was also a clinical student attorney at the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Sara is a practicing attorney from Pakistan, where prior to her LL.M., she worked on the landmark virginity testing case, and led numerous women empowerment, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

John (he/they) joined the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School in 2022 as a Staff Attorney in the Health Law and Policy Clinic. Prior to joining the Center, John was a staff attorney at the Health Law Institute in Jamaica Plain where he provided free legal services to people living with or at high risk of HIV. His prior work focused on a variety of areas, including tenant rights, public benefit appeals, and criminal record sealing. John also has expertise in LGBTQ+ organizing, harm reduction and substance use disorder, and policing and public health. He graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in May 2019 and is a licensed member of the Massachusetts Bar.