[Each month, the Addiction Legal Resource Team at Penn State’s Dickinson Law recognizes an exceptional individual for their contributions to the addiction treatment community. The individual recognized as Advocate of the Month for the month of November is Ilana Eisenstein. A former federal prosecutor, Ilana Eisenstein is now the Co-Chair of the Appellate Advocacy Practice at DLA Piper and recently became involved with Safehouse Philly. For more about Safehouse Philly, see here. We are thankful for inspiration from our honored advocates and from Dickinson Law’s Inside Entrepreneurship Blog. To learn about our past month’s advocate, see here.]

By J. Alexander Short

When she first learned of a newly proposed safe injection site in Philadelphia, Ilana Eisenstein felt a call to action. Safehouse Philly sought to provide a Philadelphia neighborhood with access to a facility in which individuals with substance use disorder could use drugs under medical supervision. Its proposal, however, was swiftly met with opposition by the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia. While Safehouse was local to Philadelphia, its success or failure very well could become a crucible for harm reduction efforts nationwide – and Ilana knew it. 

This is why she contacted the team of people in charge at Safehouse Philly and offered her services to become involved with the impending legal challenges. It was in this role that Ilana co-drafted the answer to the U.S. Attorney’s initial complaint for declaratory judgment seeking to have the facility declared illegal before it was opened.  Regardless of one’s take on the Safehouse project, Ilana’s unique perspective, her impressive resume and her commitment to healthcare-related reform make her an easy selection for the Advocate of the Month for November. 

Ilana’s perspective is shaped by professional and personal experiences.  A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Ilana started her career clerking for the Honorable Edward R. Becker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Shortly thereafter, Ilana joined the Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. With over eight years of experience as a federal prosecutor, Ilana was the lead attorney on more than 100 cases and tried 11 jury trials to verdict, with significant involvement in large scale drug prosecutions.  She then served as an Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, during which time she represented the United States in five oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court.

As a career federal prosecutor for nearly a decade, Ilana naturally weaved a law enforcement perspective into her discussion of large-scale healthcare issues. In fact, she regularly addressed competing incentives with near-mathematical precision. When asked about her first case as a prosecutor, which involved the criminal charge of Drug Delivery Resulting in Death, Ilana acknowledged the harsh and tragic consequences charges like “DDRD” have for people in the midst of addiction. At the same time, she did not mince words: “Predatory dealers deserve punishment.” However, she readily admitted that punitive measures are not always the most effective solution.

A local to the Philadelphia area, Ilana grew up in a community hard hit by the opioid epidemic. Beyond that, Ilana’s mother is a professor at Temple Medical School and her husband is a physician. These close ties to the healthcare world informed Ilana’s perspective of the ongoing need to address the opioid crisis.

When the topic returned to Safehouse Philly, Ilana carefully laid out the case for a safe injection site. As one might expect with a former federal prosecutor, her arguments were supported with sound evidence: “There has never been an overdose death in a supervised injection facility.” When discussing drug overdose deaths, “every second is critical,” she stated with a somber flatness. “In Philadelphia, the average emergency response time is nine minutes. An overdose takes only three to five minutes.”  

This focus recurred throughout our conversation, perhaps most notably when I asked Ilana where she finds inspiration in moments of struggle. Her response provided some insight into what keeps her fighting for these issues: “I am continually inspired by people who are doing the hard work each day in our community. One of the things I love about working with Safehouse is the connection with José Benitez (executive director of Prevention Point Philadelphia and a co-founder of Safehouse), who works day in and day out with his community, often in tough circumstances. Honestly, that is what energizes me.”

When Ilana discussed her role as an appellate attorney, she explained how she has the privilege of not just enforcing the law, but enforcing what the law should be. It is clear she passionately cares about how things should be in her community. Perhaps the best example of her passion can be found in the first page of Safehouse Philly’s answer to the U.S. Attorney’s complaint. It spells out the dire nature of the current state of affairs in Philadelphia:  “In the last two years, more than 2,300 of our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and neighbors died of opioid overdoses in Philadelphia alone. Philadelphia’s overdose fatality rate is nearly four times its homicide rate.” Laying out the foundational argument for safe injection facilities, the answer continues, “[t]his is the stark reality: in an opioid overdose, a person loses consciousness, stops breathing, and then—absent intervention—will die.”

Ilana works everyday to serve her community as an accomplished lawyer and advocate. Just like she is invigorated by the steadfast work of those around her, we at Dickinson Law’s Addiction Legal Resource Team are inspired by Ilana Eisenstein’s tireless work to fight for her and her client’s understanding of how things should be in her community.