Solomon Center Hosts Annual Career Night

The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy hosted a panel of esteemed health care alumni who discussed their career paths and opportunities in the health care field with students on April 10. Panelists included Carmela R. Castellano-Garcia ’91, President and CEO of of the California Primary Care Association; Jason Levitis; Julian Polaris ’15, Clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and former Associate in the Healthcare Division of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP; and Sally Strauss ’86, Senior Associate General Counsel at the Mount Sinai Health System.

The panelists represented a variety of paths in the health care sector. Castellano’s career was always focused on public interest and social justice, focusing on the Latino community—something she shared she knew she wanted to do while in law school. Before entering the health care c-suite of nonprofits focused on health care access for the Latino community more than twenty years ago, Castellano’s legal career included six years as a Staff Attorney and Managing Attorney with Public Advocates, Inc., a public interest law firm in San Francisco where she litigated in the areas of employment discrimination, insurance redlining, and ensuring access to the information superhighway for California's minority, low-income populations.

Strauss also found her way to health care after doing litigation, prosecuting the False Claims Acts in the US Department of Justice Civil Fraud Section. She noted that at the time she was hired from the DOJ into the general counsel’s office at Mount Sinai more than twenty years ago, it wasn’t clear that an in-house counsel department would value her experience in litigation, but thinks that today there is greater appreciation for the ways expertise honed in that role translates into being a valuable member of a general counsel’s office. Polaris also shared about his experience in a general counsel’s office from the summer he spent in the general counsel’s office at Rush University Medical Center.

Levitis provided insights into doing policy work in the health care space and noted how rewarding it can be to see your policy work in action. When asked about what advice he would share with current law students, he noted the importance of maintaining connections with professors and mentors.