Debra Greenfield J.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor
UCLA Center for Society and Genetics
Los Angeles
CA
United States
2010
(310) 456-2866
visible

After spending 30 years in the film and television industries as a Wm. Morris agent, Columbia Pictures studio executive, and independent producer, Ms. Greenfield studied at Pepperdine University law school, where cases involving assisted reproduction sparked her interest in the area of biotechnology and the law. After passing the CA bar in 2001 she simultaneously pursued pro-bono legal work in the field, and completed a Master’s degree in Bioethics and Health Policy from Loyola University, Chicago. Ms. Greenfield has worked in association with Distinguished Professor Lori. B. Andrews, at Chicago-Kent Law School on cutting edge cases involving law and biotechnology. These include Greenberg v. Miami Children’s Hospital, a case regarding patents on human genetic material; an 8th Circuit case, Catalona v. Washington University involving rights to tissue samples and genetic material, and the Supreme Court Metabolite case, in which Ms. Greenfield co-authored an Amicus Brief in a case involving patents on scientific principles. She also has been involved in research, writing and working with the ACLU in the recent case regarding patents on human genetic material, Association of Molecular Pathology v. USPTO. Her legal work also involves memberships on the ABA Subcommittee on Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, as well as the Los Angeles County Bar Association Bioethics Committee. Ms. Greenfield is currently a Visiting Scholar at the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics, an interdisciplinary center where she teaches undergraduate courses concerning legal rights in the biotech age, and pursues research on current issues in law and biotechnology. She has published in the Hastings Center Report, the Annals of Health Law ( Loyola University, Chicago), and the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal. Ms. Greenfield also advocates for women’s health, as a co-founding member of the Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research, a group of progressive women’s health activists involved as active public commentators on the workings of the CA stem cell agency, and aided CA legislators in the passage of Senate Bill 1260, a law protecting egg providers for stem cell cloning research. Locally, Ms. Greenfield has been a member of the Bioethics Committee at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Still believing in the power of the media, however, she recently resumed her film career, working to produce a film based on the book, His Brother’s Keeper, at Warner Bros.; a story from the “edge” of medical research.