About Sharona Hoffman, J.D., LL.M., S.J.D.

  • Edgar A. Hahn Professor of Law, Professor of Bioethics, and Co-Director of Law-Medicine Center, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)
  • Author of Aging with a Plan: How a Little Thought Today Can Vastly Improve Your Tomorrow
  • Author of Electronic Health Records and Medical Big Data: Law and Policy
  • Author of over 70 articles and book chapters on artificial intelligence, health information technology, big data, emergency preparedness, employment discrimination, clinical research, aging, and other health law topics
  • Elected to prestigious American Law Institute in 2017
  • Ninth most cited health law scholar in the United States (2016-2020)
  • 2021 CWRU Faculty Distinguished Research Award
  • Visiting Scholar at National Institutes of Health Bioethics Department, Spring 2022
  • Lectures nationally and internationally and widely quoted in the media

Sharona Hoffman is a Professor of Law and Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She joined the faculty in 1999 and is now the Edgar A. Hahn Professor of Law, Professor of Bioethics, and Co-Director of the Law School’s Law-Medicine Center. She teaches Health Law courses, Employment Discrimination, and Civil Procedure and was voted First Year Teacher of the Year in 2011, 2012, and 2019. She was elected to membership in the American Law Institute in 2017.

She also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2006 until 2009 and won the 2014 Distinguished Teacher Award. Professor Hoffman received her B.A. from Wellesley College, her J.D. from Harvard Law School, an LL.M. in health law from the University of Houston, and an S.J.D. in health law from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Prior to becoming an academic, Ms. Hoffman was a Senior Trial Attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Houston, a litigation associate at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, and a judicial clerk for U.S. District Judge Douglas W. Hillman (Western District of Michigan).

In 2013, Professor Hoffman was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a scholar-in-residence fellowship in public health law. She has also twice spent a sabbatical semester as a Visiting Scholar at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007 and 2014) and was a Visiting Scholar at Emory University in 2014 as well. In the spring semester of 2022 Professor Hoffman served as a Visiting Scholar at the National Institutes of Health Bioethics Department.

Professor Hoffman has published over sixty articles and book chapters on health law and civil rights issues. She has developed particular expertise and a national reputation in the area of health information technology. Her work has appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, William & Mary Law Review, and Boston College Law Review, among many other journals. She is also the author of two books:  Aging with a Plan: How a Little Thought Today Can Vastly Improve Your Tomorrow (Praeger 2015) and Electronic Health Records and Medical Big Data:  Law and Policy (Cambridge University Press 2016).

In 2016 Dr. Hoffman won the Case Western Reserve University School of Law Distinguished Research Award, and in 2021 she won the university-wide CWRU Faculty Distinguished Research Award. In 2021 Leiter’s Law School Reports listed her as 9th most cited health law professor for the years 2016-2020 (tied with two other academics).  Professor Hoffman has lectured throughout the United States and internationally and has been widely quoted in the press.

Sharona Hoffman– Full CV