Linda C. Fentiman

Education

Professor Linda Fentiman specializes in health law and criminal law.  In addition to Pace, she has taught at Columbia and Suffolk University Law Schools, the University of Houston Law Center, and the University of Warsaw in Poland, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.  Professor Fentiman has written extensively about bioethics, health care access, and mental disability, addressing the insanity defense, competency to stand trial, fetal protection, physician advocacy, organ transplantation, death and dying, telemedicine and Internet pharmacies.  Her most recent work has focused on women and addiction.  In 2010 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York.  In her non-academic life, Professor Fentiman has practiced health law, criminal law, and environmental law. She is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Bar Foundation and chaired the Committee on Health Law at the New York City Bar Association.  Professor Fentiman has served as a member of the National Academy of Science Committee on Toxicogenomics and has been awarded the Simonsmeier Prize for the Best Published Paper on Pharmacy Law.   Linda received a B.S. from Cornell University, a J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a LL.M. from Harvard University School of Law.  She is admitted to the bar in California, New York, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts.

"After a sabbatical teaching at the University of Warsaw in Poland, I am committed to understanding American law in a cross-cultural, comparative law framework.  While in Poland I was able to see, through the eyes of my students, much that is excellent in the American legal system, as well as some areas where improvement is necessary. I entered law school with the belief that law can be an important vehicle for social change, and I still believe that law holds out the best hope for achieving a just society. Lawyers play an essential role in giving voice to the voiceless, whether they are farm workers exposed to high levels of pesticides, women and children who lack access to health care, or indigent individuals accused of committing crimes who cannot afford an attorney. As a law school professor, my goal is to empower students, by helping them envision how they can be a voice for justice, and to help them develop the skills of effective advocacy."