Program Faculty

Faculty and Staff

Professor Courtney Cross is the Director of the Survivor Representation and Advocacy Clinic at Boyd School of Law, which focuses on providing legal services to survivors of intimate partner violence and advocating for criminalized survivors. Professor Cross’ research focuses on the intersectionality of domestic violence, criminal law, poverty, and public health. Her scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, including the University of California – Davis Law Review, the Washington & Lee Law Review, the Washington Law Review, and the Utah Law Review.

Max Gakh, JD, MPH, serves as Assistant Professor in the UNLV School of Public Health and Associate Director of the UNLV Health Law Program. Having worked on public health law issues with government officials and public health professionals, his research focuses on the intersection of law and public health and explores how legal mechanisms can improve (or hinder) the health of entire communities. Professor Gakh's research has examined the government’s legal authority to address public health problems, law-based approaches to reduce chronic disease, and legal issues critical to preparing for an epidemic or other public health emergency. One of his recent grant-funded projects involved collaborating with community partners to study the possible health effects of full-day kindergarten.

Leslie Griffin, JD, PhD, serves as the William S. Boyd Professor of Law at Boyd School of Law. Professor Griffin, who teaches constitutional law, law and religion, and bioethics and the law, is nationally and internationally recognized for her interdisciplinary contributions to the law, ethics, medicine, and religion literatures. She is author of the Foundation Press casebooks, Law and Religion: Cases and Materials (4th edition, 2016) and Practicing Bioethics Law (2015) (with Joan H. Krause). Recent articles include A Word of Warning from A Woman: Arbitrary, Categorical, and Hidden Religious Exemptions Threaten LGBT Rights, 7 Ala. C.R. & C.L.L. Rev. 97 (2015), and The Catholic Bishops vs. the Contraceptive Mandate, 6 Religions 1411 (2015). Professor Griffin's rewritten opinion about the abortion funding case, Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980), was recently published in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court (Linda Berger, Bridget Crawford & Kathryn Stanchi eds., Cambridge University Press 2016).

David Orentlicher, MD, JD, is the Cobeaga Law Firm Professor of Law and Director of the UNLV Health Law Program at UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. Nationally recognized for his expertise in health law and constitutional law, Dr. O has testified before Congress, had his scholarship cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and has served on many national, state, and local commissions. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School, Dr. O is author of Matters of Life and Death and co-author of Health Care Law and Ethics, now in its 8th edition. He has published numerous articles and essays on a wide range of topics, including health care reform, physician aid in dying, reproductive decisions, affirmative action, and presidential power. Dr. O’s work has appeared in leading professional journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), as well as in the New York Times, Time, USA Today, CNN Opinion, the Chicago Tribune, and other major newspapers. He previously directed the American Medical Association’s Division of Medical Ethics, where he drafted the AMA’s first patient’s bill of rights, and between 2002 and 2008, Dr. O served in the Indiana House of Representatives, where he authored legislation to promote job creation, protect children from abuse and neglect, and make health care coverage more affordable.

Adjunct Faculty

Glen Stevens, JD, is Senior Associate General Counsel, United Healthcare‐Nevada Market. He serves as legal counsel to UHC-Nevada senior management to support commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid lines of business. He also supplies legal support for the general managed care operations provided directly at the United Healthcare Las Vegas campus, including support to: sales, finance, member services, group services, IS programs, network, litigation, and medical management. Prof. Stevens joined United Healthcare (then Sierra Health Services) in 1998 as Director, Legislative Programs, Government Affairs and Special Projects. In that role, he lobbied full‐time on behalf of all company healthcare and insurance organizations, including bill drafting, preparing and presenting testimony, impact analysis, and managing implementation. Prior to joining United Healthcare, Prof. Stevens worked in private practice for a large law firm in Des Moines, Iowa where he oversaw a health law practice group that represented a number of for-profit and non‐profit provider organizations and payer entities. He has been a part-time instructor with the University of Nevada- Las Vegas School of Public Health, Department of Health Care Administration and Policy teaching health law and managed care courses since 2010. In addition, Prof. Stevens currently serves on the State of Nevada Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission.

Susan M. Pitz, JD, class of '02, serves as general counsel at University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (UMC) and teaches Health Care Fraud and Abuse. UMC, a publicly owned and operated hospital, has been serving the health care needs of Southern Nevadans since 1931. UMC has Nevada's only Level 1 Trauma Center, only Pediatric Level II Trauma Center, and Nevada's only burn center. The hospital is the primary teaching hospital for the UNLV School of Medicine. Prior to joining the team at UMC, Prof. Pitz spent 12 years in private practice, including seven as a principal in Nutile Pitz & Associates, a leading health law firm located in Henderson, Nev. Prof. Pitz was a member of the second entering class of the Boyd School of Law. While at UNLV, she was a member of the Nevada Law Journal and was a founding member of the Sports and Entertainment Law Association. In addition to her teaching, she stays involved at the Boyd School of Law today as a member of the Health Law Program Advisory Board.