On July 26, 2023, Morgan Cronin (J.D./M.S.H.A. ’23) will be taking the Georgia Bar Exam. The date is special for many reasons, it marks one year since she donated part of her liver to her younger brother. Cronin’s brother Craig was diagnosed in 2019 with primary sclerosing cholangitis, an incurable chronic liver disease that ultimately leads to liver failure.
“My family knew he would need a liver transplant, we just didn’t know when,” Cronin said. In spring of 2022, they found out it was time, and Cronin was quickly evaluated as a living donor. She went to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for the surgery during the summer before her final year of law school. “My brother has a new lease on life,” she happily reported. “Now he is going to medical school!”
Last fall, when Cronin returned to Georgia State Law after her organ donation, she dove back into classes and resumed her leadership activities as the editor-in-chief of the Georgia State University Law Review.
Her experiences made her classes even more personally relevant: “In Health Law: Quality and Access, we were talking about issues of informed consent for medical procedures. In Bioethics, we were talking about access to organ transplants.”
Cronin shared her experience in class and on a panel about the legal and ethical issues of organ donation alongside Assistant Professor of Law and Pediatrician Anjali Deshmukh, and Law Professor Emerita Sylvia Caley, a former nurse, who helped get organ donation designations on Georgia driver’s licenses.
Morgan Cronin (J.D./M.S.H.A. ’23) with her brother, Craig.
“Morgan approaches health law with a maturity and compassion beyond her years,” said Deshmukh. “Her openness in sharing her experiences and ideas— delivered with a little bit of levity— is truly remarkable.”
Cronin’s interest in health law is what drew her to Georgia State Law. Before law school, she earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia, with a major in risk management and minor in public health. She was intrigued by the business side of health care and began working at MagMutual, a medical professional liability insurer, as a claims analyst. She regularly worked closely with medical malpractice attorneys, inspiring her to consider law school.
Once in law school, Cronin’s interest in health law grew to encompass a broad array of topics in addition to malpractice. Through the health law certificate and master of science in health administration, she became interested in the regulatory landscape of health care. “The certificate ensured a foundation in health law, and the dual degree provided an understanding of the business side of health care,” she said.
The health law certificate offered another advantage: “Through the health law certificate and serving on the Student Health Law Association (SHLA) board, I got to know a core group of students with similar interests,” explained Cronin.
A highlight of the health law program was participating in the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic. “The clinic was a rewarding way to expand my horizons and help real clients,” said Cronin. “I also developed some of the soft skills important to law practice - even though I plan to practice in a different area of health law - such as how to have tough conversations with clients on sensitive topics.”
Assistant Clinical Professor Christina Scott (J.D. ’18) was not surprised to hear that Cronin became an organ donor: “Her compassion towards her clients combined with her immediate desire to gain a deep understanding of the legal issues made her a stellar clinic student and advocate.”
After joining Law Review as a second-year law student, she used her note to explore the intricacies of the False Claims Act and a circuit split on objective falsity: “It was intriguing to me how two different medical professionals, both competent doctors, could come to very different conclusions and recommend different treatments, and both could be right. I wanted to examine how that played out in the courts.”
Her paper, “How Deep is the Objective Falsity Circuit Split?” was awarded second place in the American University Washington College of Law’s Seventh Annual National Health Law Writing Competition.
Perhaps her most significant accomplishment was her election to editor-in-chief of the Georgia State University Law Review for 2022-2023, a leadership role she maintained even while undergoing her organ donation procedure in the summer of 2022. “Morgan is a superstar. She’s had a fire in her since the moment she arrived at Georgia State Law,” said Professor Erin Fuse Brown. “I advised her Note, had her in class, saw her excel and lead right away. I tried to hire her as a research assistant, but she had just accepted the job of editor-in-chief of Law Review. To think that in the middle of all of this she flew up to Pittsburgh to donate her liver to her brother without missing a beat is mind-boggling. There’s absolutely nothing Morgan can’t do once she sets her mind to it.”
Cronin is looking forward to the next phase of her career. She will be a clerk for the Honorable Judge Timothy Batten of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, after which she will join Alston & Bird as an associate on their health care team.
“I have had health-law blinders on, but clerking offers a little exposure to a variety of areas of the law. Seeing litigation on the back end will give me insight on how to be a better lawyer for my future client on the front end in their transactions, potentially preventing similar problems.”
But first comes the Bar Exam. Cronin finds stress to be a motivator for her. After donating an organ last year, passing the Bar Exam doesn’t seem like a life-or-death matter now.
“I hope my story helps reduce fear and encourages others to consider donating,” said Cronin.
-Written by Stacie Kershner (J.D. '08)