Overview
Allison Rice is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Health Justice Clinic at Duke Law School. She is also engaged in HIV/AIDS policy research and advocacy, with a focus on health care access and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. She collaborates with health care advocates in North Carolina and nationally on health care access issues. Rice is a regular speaker and trainer on HIV legal issues, presenting to medical providers, case managers, government officials, and community members
In the Health Justice Clinic, Rice supervises law students who provide legal representation to individuals living with HIV, cancer and other serious medical conditions, in cases involving estate planning, disability, insurance, public benefits, breach of confidentiality, and discrimination. In the HIV/AIDS policy clinic, she works with students on policy projects which have included monitoring and evaluating health plans offered through the Affordable Care Act with respect to their suitability for people living with HIV; studying insurance assistant programs offered by AIDS Drug Assistance Projects (ADAP) and advocating with North Carolina policy makers for expanded insurance cost assistance in the North Carolina ADAP program; reviewing and preparing comments on the proposed North Carolina 1115 Waiver; studying North Carolina HIV control measures and educating the HIV community about HIV criminalization. Many of these policy projects are collaborations with the North Carolina AIDS Action Network, of which Rice is a board member.
Rice has previously taught Legal Writing and Legal Ethics maintains a writing and ethics focus in her clinic supervision. Rice is also interested in the use of technology in law practice and teaching.
Rice began her legal career in 1984 as a staff attorney at Legal Services of Southern Piedmont in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was later appointed Managing Attorney. Prior to coming to Duke, Rice also did legal work for a small public interest law firm and the corporate counsel’s office of an environmental consulting firm. Ms. Rice received her B.A. in History from Colgate University in 1975, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Boston University in 1984. She lives in Durham with her husband, Lou Perron, a designer and real estate broker, and two college age children.