Health law expert joins KU Law faculty

LAWRENCE – A health law expert has joined the faculty at the University of Kansas School of Law as a professor of practice.

Guy Collier, who has more than 40 years of experience in health law, is teaching courses in Health Law & Policy and Healthcare Regulation. He joined KU Law as an adjunct professor in January 2019 and became Professor of Practice in August 2020.

Collier is senior counsel at the law firm Winston & Strawn LLP in Washington, D.C. In his practice, he represents academic medical centers, schools of medicine, hospitals and health systems on transactional and related regulatory issues. He was previously senior counsel and a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Washington, D.C.

When Collier moved from Washington, D.C. to Overland Park in 2017, he reached out to Dean Stephen Mazza about the possibility of teaching health law courses at KU.

“It just so happened that there was a vacancy and a need for someone to come in and teach health law, so the timing just worked out serendipitously,” Collier said.

Since joining the KU Law faculty, Collier has taught three semesters of Health Law & Policy. The course is a broad overview of the healthcare sector, covering topics including professional liability and informed consent. Collier’s course in Healthcare Regulation, which will be offered for the first time this spring, delves into regulatory areas such as antitrust and tax exemption.

Collier’s interest in health law started while he was a law student at the University of Richmond in the late 1970s.

“When I was in law school, it was a time of rapid change in health law. A lot of new federal legislation was being implemented, and it seemed like a new, growing, fascinating area of the law,” he said.

After completing his J.D., Collier earned a Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Before entering private practice, Collier worked in the Office of General Counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services, in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and in a leading nonprofit institution effecting change in public policy decisions related to science, technology and medicine.

His teaching experience includes an appointment as an adjunct professorial lecturer in the Milken Institute School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University.

“In addition to my day-to-day commercial practice, teaching is just a fabulous way to stay fresh on the issues and also to get to interact with individuals who are really just starting their careers,” Collier said.

“The opportunity to work with them and mentor them and help them get started has been a wonderful opportunity for me.”