Valerie Gutmann Koch
Assistant Professor
Valerie Gutmann Koch is co-director of the Health Law & Policy Institute. She also serves as the Director of Law & Ethics at the University of Chicago MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Previously, she was the Jaharis Faculty Fellow at DePaul University College of Law and a Visiting Assistant Professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Professor Koch was the Special Advisor and Senior Attorney to the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, the state’s bioethics commission, where she crafted policy and guidance related to pandemic preparedness and crisis standards of care, human subjects research, and surrogate decision-making. Following law school, she practiced in the intellectual property litigation practice at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
As a scholar of bioethics, public policy, and health law, Professor Koch concentrates on how medical and technological advances have informed and sometimes transformed various areas of law, identifying ways in which law and policy is – or is not – equipped to address changes in technology and practice. She earned her J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, where she was the co-editor of the recent developments section of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, with an A.B. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, with a focus in bioethics. Professor Koch is committed to public service, including serving as the Chair of the ABA’s Special Committee on Bioethics and the Law and Co-Chair of the Law Affinity Group for the American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities.
