Georgetown University Law Center

About: Georgetown University Law Center is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supreme court & Public health. The organization has 585 authors who have published 2488 publications receiving 36650 citations. The organization is also known as: Georgetown Law & GULC.

Medical Malpractice and Physician Discipline: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Abstract: We study the overlap between the medical malpractice (“med mal”) and medical disciplinary systems, using the records of Illinois physicians who held an active license at any point from 1990-2012. We quantify the specialty-specific risk of having a paid med mal claim or a disciplinary action; how many physicians have both; and the extent to which physicians with 2+ paid claims or 2+ disciplinary actions account for a disproportionate share of the activity of both systems. We also examine which factors are associated with paid claims and disciplinary actions, and whether physicians with multiple paid claims or disciplinary actions are concentrated at particular hospitals. Physicians with 2+ paid claims account for 2.6% of all licensed physicians, 54% of paid claims and 52% of payouts. Physicians with 2+ disciplinary actions account for 0.5% of physicians and 38% of all disciplinary actions. The risk of paid claims and disciplinary actions varies greatly by specialty. Physicians who attended non-U.S. medical schools are more likely to have paid claims but (except for high-disciplinary risk specialties) are not more likely to be subject to disciplinary action. Physicians with prior paid claims are more likely to be the target of disciplinary action – but not vice versa. A small number of Illinois hospitals are staffed by physicians with unusually high numbers of paid med mal claims, disciplinary actions, or both.

Union Summer: A Reawakened Interest in the Law of Labor

Abstract: The labor movement is stirring Whether it will succeed in reinvigorating America's workers and in expanding its now precarious position in the private sector is surely in doubt At best, its task is formidable Many observers attribute the labor movement's fall during the past quarter century in part to the Court's unsympathetic interpretations of the National Labor Law Act Those interpretations remain as substantial barriers to the labor movement's resuscitation But the Court's recent decisions in Town & Country and Brown v Pro Football provide some help to a resuscitated labor movement

The Quick (Spending) and the Dead: The Agency Costs of Forever Philanthropy

Abstract: American philanthropic institutions control upwards of a trillion dollars of wealth Because contributions to these entities are deductible from both income and estate taxes, and the entities’ earnings are tax-free, that trillion dollars is heavily underwritten by contemporary taxpayers Law offers little assurance that those who pay will be those who benefit, however To the contrary, since these subsidies become more valuable the longer charitable assets are left unspent, law strongly encourages philanthropies to save rather than spend, even in situations of great current need Other legal rules further encourage grant-making institutions to strive to exist “in perpetuity” This Essay offers new empirical evidence of the social cost of forever philanthropy, that is, of institutions that long outlive their founders Drawing on a relatively unique dataset of foundation donors, and combining it with a large archive of tax returns filed by private foundations, I search for evidence that managers of long-lasting organizations depart significantly from the preferences of the organization’s supporters I find that a firm’s overhead, or the ratio of administrative expenses to grants made, jumps by about 12% as soon as the organization’s last living donor dies Payout rates, or the share of assets spent each year, move sharply in the opposite direction, falling about 7% at that time I interpret these findings as evidence of substantial agency costs Since the timing of the donor’s death is relatively random, these outcomes offer convincing causal evidence that the ability of a donor to monitor her foundation’s managers importantly affects whether those managers follow her wishes I argue that overhead and payout changes in the direction I observe strongly suggest that managers, once free from direct oversight, are operating the firm for their own comfort and security Thus, by unnaturally extending the lifespan of foundations, law is encouraging wasteful allocation of taxpayer-supported charitable resources Therefore, I suggest several policy options that would reduce the agency-cost problem Among others, I support maintaining or increasing legal requirements for mandatory distributions by private foundations, and closing legal loopholes offered by a relatively new charitable phenomenon, the donor advised fund

A Hip-Hop Prosecutor Sings the Blues

Abstract: Paul Butler received his undergraduate degree from Yale and his law degree from Harvard. After law school, he clerked for a federal trial judge, joined an influential Washington, DC law firm, took a position at the most elite branch of the Justice Department, and ultimately entered the academy.1 Although raised by a single mom in a poor black neighbourhood in Chicago, his mother worked hard to give him every advantage, including sending him to an exclusive private school, where Butler excelled.2 He managed to navigate his rough neighbourhood, literally roll with the punches, and thrive.3 In other words, by the time Butler was applying for judicial clerkships and otherwise plotting out his legal career, he was pretty sophisticated. He had been to the best schools in the nation and had hobnobbed with the powerful. He had also seen the ravages of poverty up close and understood what it was like to live at the margins. Legal Ethics, Volume 14, Part 2