Health Law Scholar Jennifer Oliva Joins UC Law SF Faculty

Jennifer Oliva

Professor Jennifer Oliva

Oliva is a nationally-recognized health law scholar who serves as Senior Scholar with the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown Law and on the National Pain Advocacy Center’s Science and Policy Advisory Council. She was most recently the Associate Dean for Faculty Research & Development and Director of the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law at Seton Hall Law.

Her scholarship addresses the relationship between health law and policy and several other disciplines – including privacy law, torts, criminal law, administrative law, and complex litigation. At Hastings, she will collaborate with the UC Law SF/UCSF Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy on programming and grant-funded research projects, and she will teach Torts, the U.S. Healthcare System & the Law, and a Health Law Concentration Seminar.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of the Hastings community,” she said. “At UC Law SF, I will enjoy the unique privilege of working with the world-class faculty associated with the nationally-ranked UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy; learning from my brilliant faculty colleagues across all disciplines of law and policy; and collaborating with and learning alongside Hastings’ talented and diverse students all the while living in one of the world’s most beautiful, innovative, storied, and dynamic cities.”

Oliva is already working on collaborative research projects at Hastings exploring, among other things, racial and socio-economic disparities related to the United States’ ongoing punitive laws and policies that criminalize and stigmatize substance use disorder, the federal criminalization of physician prescribing practices under the Controlled Substances Act, and federal and state surveillance policies that unfairly target individuals with disabilities.

Prior to attending law school, Professor Oliva earned an MBA at the University of Oxford and was elected a Rhodes and Truman Scholar while a cadet at the United States Military Academy.  She graduated with honors from Georgetown University Law Center and served as a federal appellate law clerk to the Honorable Stephanie K. Seymour on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She was subsequently appointed Deputy State Solicitor of the State of Delaware by then-Attorney General Beau Biden.