Alex Martell graduates from DePaul University College of Law this May earning his Juris Doctorate degree along with the Health Law certificate. After graduation, he will start a job with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. As his final semester at DePaul comes to a close, Alex took the time to share his journey through law school and advice for future students interested in health law.
Alex has been exposed to healthcare and health policy his entire life, as all of his relatives work in some capacity within the medical field. While attending Tufts University as an undergraduate student, Alex studied Political Science, and this is when his passion truly ignited for health care and the law. After graduating, Alex became an intern for the Governor’s Office of Health Innovation and Transformation under former Governor Quinn in Chicago, and then moved to a position in the Illinois Health Information Exchange Authority overseeing the development of electronic medical records in the State for a few years before deciding to pursue his law degree.
At first, Alex was very interested in trying to do something at the intersection of health and policy law, such as government oversight. As he continued to take classes and work with the Jaharis Health Law Institute, Alex decided to focus solely on health law, taking almost every health law related class that was offered. Alex highly recommends that anyone interested in health law take health care policy and fraud and abuse, since these were two of his favorite classes and most applicable to his legal experience outside of the classroom. Additionally, Alex has been actively involved with the Jaharis Health Law Institute since starting at DePaul. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of this publication, the E-Pulse, as well as serving as the Managing Editor for the Health Law Journal and a prominent member of the Health Law Moot Court team.
The biggest advice that Alex would give health law students is to be flexible. He noted that there are so many different opportunities within health care and if you don’t necessarily start in your “dream job”, remember the silver lining that every aspect of health care is important. Additionally, Alex has found that law school is more about learning what you do not want to do then knowing what you want to do. So, he suggests students expose themselves to multiple areas of the law, whether that be through classes or by attending events, so that they can really start to narrow down what they want to do by the time graduation rolls around.
I know that I can speak for The Jaharis Health Law Institute and its Fellows in expressing how extremely grateful we all are to Alex for his numerous contributions, leadership, and constant commitment to the Institute’s excellence.