Unique LOR Q/situation

[medlaw06]

Hey all.


I have a strange question/request regarding LORs. As some of you may know, I am in a 6 year combined medicine-law program. I will be starting my ERAS application relatively soon and am in the process of getting my LORs together.

I have enough LORs, including from the head of the IM department, as IM is what I most likely (95%) want to do. I also have some LORs from other physicians as well.

The thing is that I am currently a law intern at the University of Pennsylvania Office of General Counsel. I have done some med mal work and some IP work here as well. My future aspirations include going into administration/legal work aside from my medical practice. Leaving aside the procedural feasibility of my future aspiratoins, I was wonderig if I could have a legal LOR for my ERAS application.

Let me clarify: obviously, the LOR will NOT be about how great of a lawyer I will be, as the people here know that I want to go into medicine. The LOR will be along the lines of how well I can "connect" the 2 professions, and my ability to interact/communicate with both physicians and lawyers if issues arise. Obviously, the LOR will NOT have issues of my medical acumen, knowledge, ability, etc. (that will be covered by the "medical" LOR).

What are your suggestions/thoughts about submitting a LOR from a lawyer? Would that hurt my application? would PDs overlook this letter?

I realize that the answer depends on such factors as the "depth" of the LOR. If the legal LOR is poor or not as strong as the "medical" LORs, then I will obviously choose the medical one. But, my question deals with what if you have 2 LORs (1 legal and 1 medical) that are the same/simialr in quality, should I pick the legal 1 so that my application will have a "unique" approach to it?


YOUR HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! (seriously...I have been weighting the pros and cons for quite some time now, and now I have to get crackin'...and I don't know what to do!)

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[GeneGoddess]

I'm an MD/PhD, which is a little closer to the "medical" than law. But I'm going to do Pediatrics, which is much more touchy feely than, say, pathology. I actually am NOT going to have my PI write a letter for me (going to get clinical doctors mostly, and then the head of the MD/PhD program - who specializes in my intended field - to write a letter mentioning my research). My PI is a basic science PhD only and pretty much hates MDs (still not sure why I chose his lab), so his letter would not help me, I think. I think that the lawyer letter probably won't hurt as long as you have good CLINICAL letters to go along with it. And since most places let you have up to four letters, you could probably add his letter.

But that's just my opinion. I'm sure others might have more insight.

 

[medlaw06]

Thanks Gene....I appreciate your advice.

The thing is is that this guy here LIKES physicians (he works with them) and I know that he can write a good one.

But, would a PD look at the PS and think "who cares!"?

 

[normalforce]

Hey all,

I am in a 4 year DO/MBA program and I got a great LOR from one of my MBA professors. It talks about handling both programs and integreates a lot about my personality, teamwork, leadership. As with Medlaw06, do you think that I should submit it as a 4th letter? Thanks.

NF

 

[xmxpro]

No offense to you or anything, but the last thing the medical field needs is another med mal practice attorney. Unless you are on the side of the MD?s, you will not make many friends in this field, and residencies will not look kindly on you, although they will never tell you face to face.
I was in a legal office last week with stacks of med mal books, and it made me sick!

As I?m sure you know, the medical world is a hurting community due to legal battles, and will continue to fall. Currently to date in the US we have 20 states that are in full blown medical liability crisis.

Best of luck, and enjoy sticking it to MD?s, if your into that type of thing.


P.S.

Forgive me if you are on ?our? side.

Regards,
MD

 

[medlaw06]

I think you have misunderstood me. IT IS MEDICINE THAT I WANT TO DO!!

I am NOT on the lawyers side, but am working here for 1) class credit, and 2) gain practical world exposure. The reason why I chose Penn are two-fold: 1) great resume builder, and 2) they represent the hospital and CHOP. The office I work in is ON THE DEFENSE side. You don't really think that I would work in a lawfirm PROSECUTING physicians, do you? I haven't sold my soul, nor will I!


I want to be a "regular" physician who wants to go into administration- head of department, or review board or something along those lines.

I don't know where in my post you got the idea that I will be working for "the dark side."

My only question is that I wanted to know whether or not I should have an LOR sent from the law offices here discussing my interactions, work ethics, communications and knowledge of the 2 profession, etc.. From the PD's perspective, will that be something that the PD thinks as "this letter is worthless since it's not medically related or has to de with the person's medical issues," OR "hmm...this is a unique and different approach..let me invite this person for an interview."


It REALLY is a simple question, really! Should I or should I not have a LOR from an attorney? I have LORs from medical people and they are just as equally "strong" as the attorney LOR.

 

[medlaw06]

Best of luck, and enjoy sticking it to MD?s, if your into that type of thing.


P.S.

Forgive me if you are on ?our? side.

Regards,
MD

You are forgiven!


Yes....I AM ON YOUR SIDE AND WILL BE!!!!!!!!!!

 

[xmxpro]

I think you have misunderstood me. IT IS MEDICINE THAT I WANT TO DO!!

I am NOT on the lawyers side, but am working here for 1) class credit, and 2) gain practical world exposure. The reason why I chose Penn are two-fold: 1) great resume builder, and 2) they represent the hospital and CHOP. The office I work in is ON THE DEFENSE side. You don't really think that I would work in a lawfirm PROSECUTING physicians, do you? I haven't sold my soul, nor will I!


I want to be a "regular" physician who wants to go into administration- head of department, or review board or something along those lines.

I don't know where in my post you got the idea that I will be working for "the dark side."

My only question is that I wanted to know whether or not I should have an LOR sent from the law offices here discussing my interactions, work ethics, communications and knowledge of the 2 profession, etc.. From the PD's perspective, will that be something that the PD thinks as "this letter is worthless since it's not medically related or has to de with the person's medical issues," OR "hmm...this is a unique and different approach..let me invite this person for an interview."


It REALLY is a simple question, really! Should I or should I not have a LOR from an attorney? I have LORs from medical people and they are just as equally "strong" as the attorney LOR.

Sorry..... I wans't really dir. my anger towards you, but the med law practice in Gen. I wish you the best of luck in your goals, and I am sure you will be fine. As far as a Ref letter, I would stick to med. letters. You want to show you are only focued on Med. Later in your career you can bring into account your Jd. I have a MD, Phd and no one cares in my hospital. The only thing they want to see or care to see is MD after your name.
We are not allowed to have MD,PhD on our lab coats. I think it is due to the fact that the Dir dosn't have a PhD and is scared of the though of a resident having a MD, PhD...

Once again, my anger wasn;t dir. at you. Hope you have a great day.
MD

 

[medlaw06]

maybe people are confused....I am an MSIII looking to apply for residencies.

 

[doc05]

I wouldn't recommend it. Residency programs are looking to train you as a physician, so your letters should be from physicians in your specialty of interest (or a related specialty). But hold onto the lawyer reference letters as they may be useful a couple years down the road.

 

[Seaglass]

What doc05 said: programs are looking to train great physicians, not great physician-lawyers. Your LOR's should be from clinical faculty that speak to your clinical skills. This goes for the MBA fella too. Put the other stuff in your personal statement - people do read them and that is the accepted venue for this type of stuff.

C

 

[axm397]

Agree with Seaglass (HI seaglass!!)

If you were applying to some funky residency with a JD or MBA component - then by all means include those letters. However, since the OP said he was applying to IM, I think including the LOR from a JD would be a waste of your allotted LORs. PDs don't care about your work ethics outside of the medical profession, your knowledge of the law, or your interaction with clients. You will have your JD info in your CV and perhaps you even talked about it in your PS. If your goal is to land an interview by getting a PD interested, then your CV and PS should be sufficient for that purpose.

Write about your work ethic and stuff in your PS - it may make you more interesting. Don't waste one of your precious LOR slots with a JD LOR - or an MBA LOR for Normal force. If you can find a MD JD or an MD MBA to write you a LOR about your clinical skills and a sentence or two about your unique background, then by all means, go for it.

Good luck

 

[Seaglass]

How is Chocolate Town AXM? I heard there was some weather action there recently.

C

 

[undecided05]

No offense to you or anything, but the last thing the medical field needs is another med mal practice attorney. Unless you are on the side of the MD?s, you will not make many friends in this field, and residencies will not look kindly on you, although they will never tell you face to face.
I was in a legal office last week with stacks of med mal books, and it made me sick!

As I?m sure you know, the medical world is a hurting community due to legal battles, and will continue to fall. Currently to date in the US we have 20 states that are in full blown medical liability crisis.

Best of luck, and enjoy sticking it to MD?s, if your into that type of thing.


P.S.

Forgive me if you are on ?our? side.

Regards,
MD

I thought it was about being on the patient's side?!?!? While there are some frivelous suits out there; there are also plenty of physicians that don't deserve to practice medicine and that put their patient's at risk DAILY. Please don't make everything a doctor vs lawyer issue. It's poor taste. Lawyers in general aren't out to get doctors; they're out to represent clients.

 

[axm397]

Tornados and Kiss concerts keep chocolate town exciting... Cuban terror apparently got called in the day of the tornado to help. My prelim medicine on research month butt did not get called in.

Anyways, I think we're kind of getting off topic. There's a medmal thread somewhere on this forum. This thread was supposed to be about LORs from non-MDs, right??