The Addiction Legal Resource Team (ALRT) is a group of students and faculty at Penn State’s Dickinson Law who work together to provide resources for those who are affected by addiction.

Led by Matthew Lawrence, assistant professor of law at Dickinson Law and assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at Penn State College of Medicine, the group of Dickinson Law students work to develop and disseminate legal resources, promote informed policy making, and facilitate scholarly research.

ALRT project supporters and collaborators beyond Dickinson Law include Parity at 10, Partnership for Drug Free Kids, Legal Action Center, Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute, Partnership for Better Health PA’s Opioid Prescribing Task Force, and Penn State College of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences and Department of Surgery.

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The ALRT can be reached at ALRT@dsl.psu.edu.

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Team Bios:

 Cole Gordner

Cole Gordner is a second-year law student at Penn State Dickinson Law School. Cole attended Dickinson College, graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. Prior to law school, Cole worked as a legislative intern on Capitol Hill and drafted a proposal to expand coverage of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program’s. While Cole’s primary areas of study are Administrative and International Law and he hopes to work for a federal agency upon completion of law school. His research interests focus on the policies pursued by state governments in an attempt to alleviate the effects of the opioid crisis.

Ryan Kingshill

Ryan Kingshill is a second-year law student at Penn State Dickinson Law School. Ryan attended Lebanon Valley College, graduating in 2013 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Science and Religion. Before attending Dickinson Law, Ryan worked as a Patient Access Representative at Revint Solutions and as a Physical Therapy Technician at Drayer Physical Therapy. His research interests include Health Law and Policy, Access to Care for Substance Abuse Disorder, Elder Abuse, and Medicare/Medicaid Fraud.

Sonal Parekh                  

Sonal Parekh was born in South Africa, and moved to the United States when she was four years old. Sonal later moved back to South Africa to gain a pharmacy degree. After interning for a year in Novartis, South Africa, she also worked for a short time as a pharmacist in a hospital. Now, Sonal studies law at Penn State Dickinson, aiming to pursue a career in Pharmaceutical Law, where she hopes to focus on patents and intellectual property within the pharmaceutical field. 

Travis Murray

Travis Murray is a 2L student at Dickinson Law. Prior to law school, he attended the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy where he earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2018. He is a licensed pharmacist in Pennsylvania and is currently employed by Penn State Health as a hospital pharmacist. Travis is interested in addressing the opioid epidemic by evaluating the “medication use process” used by healthcare professionals for vulnerabilities that contribute to the epidemic. Identifying these vulnerabilities and finding solutions may be able to protect patients and the public from opioid misuse and abuse. 

Alexander Short

Alexander Short is a third year law student at Dickinson Law. Prior to law school, Alex earned his Bachelor’s Degree in political science at the University of Virginia. Prior to law school, he worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative intern and later for the Senate Page Program. A founding member of the Addiction Legal Resource Team, Alex regularly contributes written work, which has been published to the Harvard Law School Bill of Health Blog, the Young Lawyer’s Division of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Newsletter, and the Bucks County Herald. His current pursuits include developing an online presence for the Addiction Legal Resource Team at Dickinson Law. His research interests tend to focus on the role of the criminal justice system as it relates to the opioid crisis. 

Tori Remington

Tori Remington is a third-year law student at Penn State Dickinson Law.  Prior to law school, Tori earned her Bachelor’s Degree in political science and philosophy at Augustana University in South Dakota.  Throughout undergraduate school, Tori worked full-time as a certified medication assistant at a long-term nursing facility, which gave her intimate knowledge regarding opioid use and addiction in the elderly populations.  As a founding member of the Addiction Legal Resource Team, Tori has researched and developed legal resource guides for insurance coverage of opioid treatment.  While Tori plans to pursue a career in corporate and bankruptcy law, she continues to advocate for opioid treatment and prevention for all age groups.

 Evan Marmie

Born and raised in Appalachia, Evan has been interested with addiction and treatment for years. His work over the last year helped in crafting both policy aides and legal resource guides for rehabilitation and insurance coverage. His interest in addiction and treatment informs his pursuits into the criminal justice field in Maryland, where he plans to practice. His current work is in developing state Medicaid guides. 

Matthew B. Lawrence

Matthew B. Lawrence is an Assistant Professor of Law at Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson Law, and holds a courtesy appointment as Assistant Professor at Penn State College of Medicine in the Department of Surgery. He is an expert in health care financing and administrative law and has written widely on these subjects including scholarship published or forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review; Florida Law Review; Fordham Law Review; Indiana Law Journal; Harvard Law & Policy Review; Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics; New York University Law Review; Northeastern Law Review; and other journals. Lawrence also has deep federal experience, having worked on health care regulatory issues during the Obama and Trump administrations as attorney advisor in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Office of General Counsel and as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice. In 2016 he received an individual special commendation award for his defense of Affordable Care Act programs at DOJ. He began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He is a graduate of NYU School of Law and Brown University.