Boost Your Healthcare Career
with an MSL
Reach Your Goals with Northwestern Law
The Master of Science in Law degree from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law is the first degree of its kind to focus on the intersection of health and medicine with law, business, and technology.
With practical courses in areas such as health regulation and compliance, risk assessment, entrepreneurship, data privacy and security, and many others, the MSL program will prepare you to excel in a healthcare career and provide you with a unique set of skills and knowledge to help you stand out as a health professional.
Fill out the form below to let us know if our MSL program caught your eye. We will be in touch soon.
Online Part-Time
- Duration: 2-4 years
- Location: Online
- Start Dates: August and January
- Format options: Online students must take two credits in elective classes offered in person in Chicago and are welcome to take as many additional in-person elective classes as they'd like.
Residential Full-Time
- Duration: 9 months
- Location: Downtown Chicago campus
- Start Date: August
- Format options: Residential students take most of their classes in person, with the option of taking up to nine credits in online elective courses.
Where Law and Medicine Converge
An understanding of law and regulation is essential for healthcare professionals, who frequently find themselves interacting with a myriad of legal and regulatory structures, complex bureaucracies, and situations requiring sophisticated risk assessment. The MSL program has enrolled many medical professionals, including nurses, doctors, insurance professionals, research administrators, and medical entrepreneurs.
With courses extremely relevant to today’s healthcare practitioners, the MSL curriculum prepares you to be a well-rounded, forward-thinking medical professional who can make a meaningful impact. Students choose from courses related to health regulation and compliance, risk assessment, business and finance issues in health, data privacy and security, AI and technology, medical device development, global health policy, entrepreneurship, and others. With these classes, you will be prepared to tackle challenges in areas like healthcare administration and leadership, patient advocacy, academic medicine, and the business side of healthcare delivery.
By providing a solid foundation in the areas of law, regulation, and business while focusing on the creation of practical solutions, the MSL not only prepares medical professionals for the issues they will face but also ensures that they will be more effective problem solvers.
Nancy Paridy, MSL Adjunct Professor
President and Chief Administrative Officer, Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
A Practical Approach
At Northwestern Law, our dedicated faculty make all the difference. The MSL faculty includes Northwestern Law’s distinguished law professors and a select group of renowned adjunct professors who are business leaders, government officials, regulatory professionals, and lawyers. These scholars and practitioners have developed their courses specifically for the MSL program, so you’ll engage in course material that is tailored to your interests and goals.
Driving Excellence in Healthcare
The MSL enhances careers by providing its graduates with a holistic view of the healthcare system and equipping them with knowledge of the disciplines that intersect with health and medicine. The MSL is an appropriate degree for a wide variety of healthcare professionals, including:
Experienced healthcare professionals who find themselves interacting with legal and regulatory issues.
Those hoping to pursue medical education in the future who want to enhance their medical school applications and gain a valuable perspective to bring with them.
Medical entrepreneurs who are interested in medical devices, health IT, and innovative business models and processes.
Doctors and nurses interested in the business side of medicine or health administration or those who plan to or do have their own practices.
Public health-minded professionals who need law and business knowledge to accomplish their goals.
70+
Elective courses specifically designed for the MSL program to build expertise in legal, regulatory, and policy analysis across a range of areas, including health and medicine.
96%
MSL graduates have achieved great professional success. 81% were employed in jobs relating to their MSL training and 15% were enrolled in further academic study, pursuing programs in medicine, law, business, and technology.
Dedicated Support for Careers and Study in Healthcare and Medicine
MSL students will receive career support no matter what they decide to do – whether that is going on to a medical program, working in healthcare, or using their STEM training in another way. Our goal is to empower MSL graduates to seek out interesting and fulfilling next steps that will utilize the skills and knowledge gained during the course of their studies.
Get More Information
Let us know how best to get in touch so we can share more about how we can help you achieve your career goals.