A little over 20 years ago, Director, Randye Retkin and Associate Director, Julie Brandfield both read an article in the New York Times on how Boston Medical Center hired an attorney to staff a free legal clinic onsite in the hospital. This novel approach to providing legal services struck something in them, and they realized how the power of the law could help mitigate many of the health harming aspects in people’s lives.
Armed with deep expertise in the law, the two piloted a medical legal partnership (MLP) with Mount Sinai Pediatrics, a partnership we still have to this day. Very quickly, patients’ health and wellbeing benefited from onsite legal help, and LegalHealth’s MLP model has continued to expand ever since.