Maxine M. Harrington
Professor of Law
Email Professor Harrington
Courses: Health Law, Torts, Medical Malpractice, Bioethics & the Law Seminar, and Remedies
Professor Harrington has been member of the faculty at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law since 2003. Prior to teaching, she had an accomplished career in both the public and private sectors. Upon graduation from law school, Professor Harrington served as law clerk to the Honorable George R. Gallagher of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Professor Harrington was also in-house counsel for Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, which was part of the National Institute of Mental Health and the only civilian federal psychiatric hospital. After relocating to Texas, she entered private practice and became a named shareholder of Broude, Nelson & Harrington, P.C., where she was lead defense counsel in medical malpractice cases.
Professor Harrington’s scholarship and teaching focus on health law, including bioethics, tort reform, and the legal response to medical error. Among her other professional activities, in March 2008, Professor Harrington was invited as a Beazley Visiting Professor in Health Law at Chicago Loyola University School of Law. Professor Harrington also has been active in community organizations and is a former vice president and secretary-treasurer of the Tarrant County Bar Association. She is a member of the bars of Texas and the District of Columbia, as well as the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Fifth and District of Columbia Circuits and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Texas and District of Columbia.
Professor Harrington earned her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center, where she graduated with high honors and was a member of Order of the Coif. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of North Dakota.
Selected Publications
"The Thin Flat Line: Redefining Who Is Legally Dead in Organ Donation After Cardiac Death," 86 Denv. U. L. Rev. 335 (2009). [LexisNexis] [Westlaw]
"The Ever-Expanding Health Care Conscience Clause: The Quest for Immunity in the Struggle Between Professional Duties and Moral Beliefs," 34 Florida State University Law Review 781 (2007) [Hein] [LexisNexis] [Westlaw]
"Revisiting Medical Error Revisited: Five Years after the IOM Report, Have Reporting Systems Made a Measurable Difference?," 15 Health Matrix Journal of Law-Medicine 329 (2005)
[Hein] [LexisNexis] [Westlaw]
"Health Law Dispute Resolution," chapter in Alternative Dispute Resolution Handbook, ADR Section of the State Bar of Texas (Frank Elliott and Kay Elkins-Elliott, eds., Imprimatur Press 3rd ed. 2003)
"Death with Dignity or Despair? What Shakespeare’s Stories Tell us About the Physician-Assisted Suicide Debate," Wesleyan Lawyer, Vol. 5 page 28 (Fall/winter 2005)
"Obtaining Medical Records Under HIPAA in Judicial or Administrative Proceedings,: Tarrant County Bar Bulletin (Aug. 2003)
"Informed Consent," Tarrant County Physican, Vol. 73, No. 9 (2001)