Medical Liability Reform Will be Focus of Austin Owen Lecture and Symposium at University of Richmond School of Law
October 22, 2004
Health insurance costs, medical-malpractice suits and liability issues are topics of concern to doctors, lawyers, presidential candidates and average Americans alike.
Those topics and others will be examined in a symposium, "The Business of Medicine: Perspectives on Medical Liability Reform," at the University of Richmond School of Law Oct. 29, 1:30-4 p.m.
The symposium is co-sponsored by the law school, the Richmond Journal of Global Law and Business, the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and the Robins School of Business.
John M. O'Bannon III, a delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates and a Richmond area physician, will deliver the keynote address, "The Business (and Law and Politics) of Medicine," at 1:30 p.m. The address is the 13th annual Austin Owen Lecture, honoring the late Austin E. Owen, a 1950 graduate of the law school and judge of the Second Judicial Circuit of Virginia from 1974-90. The lectureship was established in 1990 by his daughter and son-in-law, Dr. Judith Owen Hopkins and Dr. Marbry B. Hopkins, to honor the judge's distinguished career in the law, which spanned both bar and bench.
O'Bannon is a partner in Neurological Associates in Richmond. He served as chief of staff of Henrico Doctors' Hospital, where he is on the board of trustees. He also is a member of the Council for Ethical and Judicial Affairs for the American Medical Association and was chairman of the Medical Society of Virginia's Legislative Committee and helped pass the Virginia Patients Bill of Rights.
At 2:45 p.m. there will be a panel discussion, "Perspectives on Medical Liability Reform." Michael L. Goodman, an attorney with Goodman, Allen & Filetti who teaches medical liability and health care law at Richmond Law, will moderate. Panelists include William H. Archambault, general counsel for Piedmont Liability Trust, the self-insured professional liability organization for the attending physicians of the University of Virginia; Stephen S. Fargis, senior vice president and COO of the NCRIC Group Inc., a diversified health care financial services company; Joseph P. McMenamin, a practicing physician before being admitted to the bar and now partner with McGuireWoods who focuses on health law, health-related litigation and risk management and claims avoidance; and Thomas W. Williamson, of Williamson & Lavecchia, who was named by Richmond Magazine as the area's top lawyer in medical malpractice, product liability and personal injury litigation.
Both the lecture and panel discussion are free and open to the public and will be held in the Moot Courtroom.
A schedule of events follows:
- 1-1:30 p.m. Registration
- 1:30-2:30 p.m. Keynote address/Austin Owen Lecture, “The Business (and Law and Politics) of Medicine
- 2:30-2:45 p.m. Break
- 2:45-4 p.m. Panel discussion, "Perspectives on Medical Liability Reform"