Ila S. Rothschild

Ila S. Rothschild is a healthcare attorney, consultant and certified mediator.  She has worked with physicians, health care professionals, hospital and medical groups, and advocated on behalf of patients. Rothschild served as Assistant General Counsel for the American Hospital Association, Director of Private Sector Advocacy with the American Medical Association, and Special Counsel with The Joint Commission. She also had a private practice in California and currently maintains a private practice in Chicago.

Rothschild received a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Given this background, and a long standing interest in health care, she went on to obtain a master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago. Her interest in health care led her to work as a medical social worker at a major teaching hospital in Chicago. Needless to say, her education and training aided her as she helped patients and medical and nursing staff deal with medical and ethical crises. Often these crises bordered on legal issues, and after seven years in social work, Rothschild decided to attend law school where she could mesh her interests in social work and health care with the law.

Early on, Rothschild recognized that much of what she did was early conflict resolution. As Special Counsel with The Joint Commission, she researched and drafted a standard (for hospitals) on the management of dispute resolution. She also served as a co-author on a “Dispute Resolution Toolkit” for the American Health Lawyers Association.

Rothschild has written and spoken on issues pertaining to the medical/legal practice, including medical tourism, telemedicine and aid-in-dying. She obtained a position as lecturer-in-law at the University of Chicago Law School where she taught courses on legal and ethical issues in health care.

All told, Rothschild says, her early coursework in psychology served as a springboard for her to work and teach within the health law arena, for which she is grateful.