Solomon Center Hosts 2022 Health Law and Policy Career Night

On March 31 the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy and the Yale Health Law and Policy Society (YHeLPS) co-hosted a panel of five Law School alumni working in health care law to discuss career paths and opportunities in health law and policy with students.

Panelists included Christen Linke Young ’09, Deputy Director of White House Domestic Policy Council for Heath and Veterans Affairs; Nicholas Oo ’20 Vice President at The Invus Group; Adam Pan ’19, Associate at Williams & Connolly LLP; Paul Rodríguez ’11, Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and Emma Roth ’17, a Staff Attorney at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

The annual career night offers students the chance to hear candidly from alumni about their unique paths in health law. The panel discussed the critical moments that significantly impacted the development of those paths. They provided exposure to a diversity of careers in the discipline, with panelists sharing advice on how to navigate summer jobs, classes, early career moves, and other major transitions.

Christen Linke Young discussed the incredible value of a law degree in doing policy work and Nicholas Oo shared how impactful his experience at Yale Law School was in shaping his professional path.

The alumni panelists also provided an opportunity for mentorship, with Paul Rodriguez offering his time to meet with students ono-on-one throughout the afternoon to discuss their interests and career goals. Learn more about the alumni panelists below.

Christen Linke Young ’09 is Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council for Heath and Veterans Affairs. Previously she was a fellow with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. Prior to her work at Brookings, she was the Principal Deputy Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, where she focused on developing cross-agency initiatives, implementing innovative policy solutions, and providing day-to-day operational leadership of the Department.

Nicholas Oo ’20 is a Vice President at The Invus Group. Nicholas first joined Invus in 2015, where he was a biotech analyst until 2017. After graduating from law school, he returned to Invus in 2020. Prior to joining Invus in 2015, Nicholas worked at Bridgewater Associates as an Associate and at Credit Suisse Asset Management as an Analyst. Nicholas has a J.D. from Yale Law School and graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in government from Harvard College.  

Adam Pan ’19 is an Associate at Williams & Connolly LLP. While at Yale Law School he was Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics and the Yale Journal of Law and Technology. Prior to attending Yale, Adam received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research on computational X-ray phase contrast imaging of human atherosclerotic disease. Adam clerked for Judge Timothy B. Dyk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Paul Rodríguez ’11 is Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Previously, he was Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. Before assuming leadership of the Division, Paul served as Acting Counsel to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, where he provided advice and strategic guidance to the mayor and top administrative officials on legal, management, and policy objectives.

Emma Roth ’17 is a Staff Attorney at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Prior to joining National Advocates for Pregnant Women, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ronnie Abrams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She also worked as an Equal Justice Works fellow for the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, where she brought impact litigation to advance the rights of women and girls in courts across the country.