Assistant professors of Law I. Glenn Cohen ’03 and Benjamin Roin ’05
Assistant professors of Law I. Glenn Cohen ’03 and Benjamin Roin ’05 are the new co-directors of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at HLS.
Cohen and Roin both joined the Petrie-Flom Center as inaugural academic fellows in 2006. They were appointed assistant professors in 2008.
Cohen is currently working on projects relating to reproductive technology and medical tourism. His past work has included projects on end-of-life decision-making, FDA regulation, research ethics and commodification.
A 2003 graduate of HLS, Cohen received the Sears prize for the highest 1L grades and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Before joining the HLS faculty, he clerked for Chief Judge Michael Boudin ’64, United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. He also served as an appellate attorney for the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, where he acted as lead counsel in more than 12 Circuit Court cases and represented the United States in the U.S. Supreme Court, in conjunction with the solicitor general’s office.
Roin, the Hieken Assistant Professor of Patent Law, works on issues involving pharmaceutical innovation, FDA regulations and the patent system. His previous scholarship includes work on why the patent system fails to achieve one of its functions—the disclosure of patented ideas to others. Roin has multiple research interests, including patent law, trade secrecy, copyright law, trademark law, health law, food and drug law, and property law.
Roin graduated from HLS in 2005, after also earning the Sears prize and serving as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After HLS, he clerked for Judge Michael McConnell on the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
The center was founded thanks to a generous gift from Joseph H. Flom ’48 and the Petrie Foundation in order to respond to the need for leading legal scholarship in the fields of health care, biotechnology and bioethics. Professor Einer Elhauge ’86, who has served as faculty director since the center’s founding in 2005, will remain associated with the research program as its founding director.