Elizabeth Pendo

  • Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Kellye Y. Testy Professor of Law

Contact

Phone: (206) 616-6599
Email: ependo@uw.edu

Education

B.A. with Honors, UCLA J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law

Areas of Expertise

Affordable Care Act — Bioethics — Disability and Mental Health Law — Health Care Law — Health Law Ethics

Recent Courses

Course Number Course Name
Introduction to Perspectives on the Law

Selected Publications

See the full list under the Publications tab below.

Elizabeth Pendo, J.D., is the Kellye Y. Testy Professor of Law and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Administration at the ºìÌÒÊÓÆµ.Ìý She also serves as a member of the executive council of the UW .

Professor Pendo is an expert in disability law and theory, health law and policy, and bioethics and the law, and a specialist on the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Affordable Care Act, disability health equity, and legal obligations of providers, institutions, insurers, and employers under anti-discrimination laws. Her research appears in high-impact interdisciplinary publications including Health Affairs, NEJM, Yale Journal of Health Policy and Ethics, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and The Hastings Center Report, and in leading law reviews including Wake Forest Law Review, Utah Law Review, Arizona State Law Journal, and UC Davis Law Review. She is also a co-author of the influential casebook, , 9th ed. (West). Ìý

Professor Pendo engages in collaborative, interdisciplinary work designed to improve health and well-being for people with disabilities and other marginalized populations. She participates in policy advising with federal agencies and advocacy groups, and her work recently was cited by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in proposed federal regulations. Professor Pendo was also commissioned as the lead author of a report on the role of law in promoting health and well-being for people with disabilities for the Healthy People 2020 Law and Health Policy Project, a partnership between the HHS Office of Disease Prevention andÌýHealthÌýPromotion, the CDC, and the CDC Foundation funded through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

As Senior Associate Dean for Academic Administration, Professor Pendo brings a breadth of experience to her work with students, faculty, staff, and university and community partners. She has been active in national legal and academic organizations, including as an elected member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the ABA, Chair of the AALS Section on Law, Medicine and Health Care, and through service on the ABA Commission on Disability Rights.

Prior to joining the faculty at ºìÌÒÊÓÆµ in 2023, Professor Pendo was a member of the faculty at Saint Louis University School of Law and its top-ranked Center for Health Law Studies (ranked #1 for 16 of the prior 17 years). After graduating from UCLA and UC Berkeley School of Law, Professor Pendo clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and practices as an associate at Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard (later merged with Ropes & Gray) and in the legal department of MetLife in New York.Ìý She is a member of the State Bars of California and New York.

Peer Reviewed Journals & Law Reviews

  • Elizabeth Pendo, Disciplining Physicians Who Inflict Harm: New Legal Resources for State Medical Board Members: Foreword, 15 St. Louis U. J. Health L. & Pol'y 1-7 (2021).

Books or Treatises


Book Chapters

  • Elizabeth Pendo, Shaping Federal Policy to Address Mental Health Equities, in Mental Health Equity (Daniel E. Dawes, et al., eds.) (Springer Publishing) (forthcoming 2025).

Professional Publications


  • Panelist, "New Legal Strategies Against SUD Discrimination in Health Care," ASLME Health Law Professors Conference, (June 5, 2025)
  • Speaker, Certified Professional Guardianship Program, UW Professional and Continuing Education (May 10, 2025)
  • Speaker, Comparative Human Rights Law and Policy for People with Disability, UW College of Arts and Sciences, Law Societies & Justice Program (May 7, 2025)
  • Speaker, Bioethics of Disability, Harvard Medical School, Center for Bioethics (May 5, 2025)
  • Speaker, Health Law, Seattle University School of Law (March 13, 2025)
  • Moderator and Facilitator, "Equity in Research for Excellence," UW Office of Research (February 21, 2025)
  • Speaker, Medical Ethics and Jurisprudence, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, ºìÌÒÊÓÆµ and UW Medicine (February 19, 2025)
  • Speaker, University of Washington Center for an Informed Public (CIP) (February 4, 2025)
  • Commentator, Section on Law Professors with Disabilities & Allies, AALS Annual Meeting (January 11, 2025)
  • Commentator, Section on Law Medicine and Health Care, AALS Annual Meeting (January 8, 2025)
  • Speaker, Section on BioLaw, AALS Annual Meeting (January 8, 2025)
  • Panelist, APHA Annual Meeting, (October 29, 2024)
  • Moderator, Book Discussion, Elliott Bay Book Company (October 14, 2024)
  • Speaker, American Academy of Legal Medicine Annual Meeting, Medical Society of Georgia (October 11, 2024)
  • Speaker, "Invited Reader," Health Law Scholars Workshop, American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics (ASLME), Saint Louis University School of Law (September 27, 2024)
  • May 13, 2025 | Source: Seattle Children's PLUGS Podcast

    "In this episode, Dr. Geoff Baird and I interview Elizabeth Pendo, the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and the Kellye Y. Testy Professor of Law at the ºìÌÒÊÓÆµ. Our topic is medical legal collaboration to improve laboratory stewardship."

  • May 06, 2025 | Source: National Jurist PreLaw

    Tamara Lawson, dean of ºìÌÒÊÓÆµ, said interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to train the next generation of leaders to solve some of the most complex societal problems. “Innovation requires building consequential connections that span disciplines,” Lawson said. Elizabeth Pendo, senior associate dean for academic affairs and director of the program, said putting the power of the law into action to solve problems will provide policy solutions to support health science and population health ecosystems.

  • Feb 18, 2025 | Source: A Guide to Power of Attorney for Elderly Parents | U.S. News

    In a nutshell, “a health care power of attorney can ensure that your wishes as a patient are honored even in a situation where you've lost the ability to communicate those wishes to your health care providers,” says Elizabeth Pendo, an attorney and professor at the ºìÌÒÊÓÆµ in Seattle. Health care law is her specialty.