Robert Gatter, J.D.
Professor; Director; Center for Health Law Studies
Professor of Health Management and Policy
Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice
Courses Taught
Administrative Law, Health Care Law, Health Law Semester in DC, Public Health Law, Seminar: Theories of Health Law, Theories of Health Law Seminar
Education
B.A., Johns Hopkins University, 1986
J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1990
M.A. (Bioethics), Medical College of Wisconsin, 1995
Practice Areas
Gatter has expertise in a variety of health law topics including public health law, informed consent law, end-of-life decisions, conflicts of interest, and theoretical descriptions of health law.
Publications and Media Placements
Gatter's work has been published by Emory Law Journal, Boston University Law Review,
Notre Dame Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review and others. Additionally, he has organized
symposia on “Pandemic Preparedness” and on “Dual-Use Research Regulation” that were
each published as issues of the Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law and Policy.
Publication List
Honors and Awards
Saint Louis University recognized Gatter's teaching with a “Faculty Excellence Award”
in 2012.
Gatter was named one of ten national fellows for 2014-2015 in the “Future of Public
Health Law Teaching” program underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As
part of that program, he incorporated population health outcomes research into SLU’s
public health law curriculum through both lectures and a Public Health Law Research
Lab that went live in the 2015-2016 academic year.
Community Work and Service
While at Saint Louis University School of Law, Gatter developed and implemented the school’s “Health Law Semester in Washington DC” program through which experienced law students earn a semester of credit while working full-time in a federal agency doing supervised health law work. Additionally, he worked with the University’s Center for Outcomes Research to create the nation’s first dual-degree program in law and health outcomes research. Currently, he helped plan the annual ASLME Health Law Professors Conference, which SLU LAW hosted in June 2015.
Prior to joining the faculty at Saint Louis University, Gatter was on the faculty at Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law where he also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Early in his academic career, he was a bioethics fellow at the University of Minnesota and taught at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Additionally, he practiced in health law and commercial litigation in Denver, Colorado.