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Robert Gatter, J.D.

Professor; Director; Center for Health Law Studies

Professor of Health Management and Policy
pro College for Public Health and Social Justice


Courses Taught

Administrative Law, Health Care Law, Health Law Semester in DC, Public Health Law, Seminar: Theories of Health Law, Theories of Health Law Seminar

Education

B.A., Johns Hopkins University, 1986
J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1990
M.A. (Bioethics), Medical College of Wisconsin, 1995

Practice Areas

Gatter has expertise in a variety of health law topics including public health law, informed consent law, end-of-life decisions, conflicts of interest, and theoretical descriptions of health law.

Publications and Media Placements

Gatter's work has been published by Emory Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review and others. Additionally, he has organized symposia on “Pandemic Preparedness” and on “Dual-Use Research Regulation” that were each published as issues of the pro Journal of Health Law and Policy.

Honors and Awards

pro recognized Gatter's teaching with a “Faculty pro Award” in 2012.

Gatter was named one of ten national fellows for 2014-2015 in the “Future of Public Health Law Teaching” program underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As part of that program, he incorporated population health outcomes research into SLU’s public health law curriculum through both lectures and a Public Health Law Research Lab that went live in the 2015-2016 academic year.

Community Work and Service

While at pro School of Law, Gatter developed and implemented the school’s “Health Law Semester in Washington DC” program through which experienced law students earn a semester of credit while working full-time in a federal agency doing supervised health law work. Additionally, he worked with the University’s Center for Outcomes Research to create the nation’s first dual-degree program in law and health outcomes research. Currently, he helped plan the annual ASLME Health Law Professors Conference, which SLU LAW hosted in June 2015.

Prior to joining the faculty at pro, Gatter was on the faculty at Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law where he also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Early in his academic career, he was a bioethics fellow at the University of Minnesota and taught at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Additionally, he practiced in health law and commercial litigation in Denver, Colorado.