The University of New Mexico’s Schools of Law and Medicine host Law & Medicine Day on Friday, March 6 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Domenici NW 3740 on UNM’s North Campus.

Law & Medicine Day will bring together small groups of law and medical students, as well as medical residents and fellows, and new lawyers to discuss dilemmas that reflect significant ethical and legal uncertainty. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss these cases and resolve them with a group of lawyers and doctors to be.

The cases grow out of the uncertainties of medical ethics, legal ethics and the more general ethical obligations we all owe one another as human beings, independent of our professions. Can you be a good doctor or a good lawyer and a good human being? The goal is to encourage different points of view to surface and to increase understanding between the two professions.

Three breakout sessions with vignettes addressing law / medical ethical dilemmas are also included as part of the half-day seminar. They include: Control by the Patient/Client or Control by the Profession; What is a “Medical” Condition – Who Should Decide How Medical Resources are Allocated; and An Ethical Dilemma in Professional Responsibility: Obligations to Friends and Obligations to Patients/Clients.

UNM President Garnett S. Stokes will provide a welcome to attendees to open the event followed by two lectures including “Why I went to law school,” by Dr. Susan Scott and “The Medical Legal Alliance” by Law Professor Carol Suzuki.

The seminar concludes with a keynote speech from Justice Edward Chavez, who went to school back east for his undergraduate degree—Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, N.M. He received his Juris Doctorate Degree from The University of New Mexico School of Law in 1981. Chavez served as a Justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court from March 7, 2003 until his retirement on March 9, 2018. He was the Chief Justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court from January 10, 2007 until April 7, 2010.

During his career Chavez was elected to the American Law Institute; the American College of Trial Lawyers; the International Academy of Trial Lawyers; and the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource Center.

The seminar is open to current UNM law and medical students, and UNM School of Medicine residents. A continental breakfast and lunch will provided to attendees.

For more information and to register, visit UNM Law / Medicine Day.