Gifts in Action - The Epsteins

MEET THE EPSTEINS

A native of Starkville, Mississippi, J.D. Epstein attended junior high and high school in Chester, Illinois, and attended the U of I on an academic scholarship. He earned his bachelor’s degree in commerce law in 1965 and held jobs as a lifeguard and swimming instructor among others to pay his way through law school, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1967. He is a partner and co-head of the health law section of Vinson & Elkins LLP in Houston, Texas. Epstein has made the list of The Best Lawyers in America in healthcare law for over 10 years and was named one of the 12 outstanding hospital lawyers in the nation by Nightingale’s Healthcare News in 2003. Since the early 1970s, he has concentrated his practice on health issues and has represented numerous hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, HMOs, group practices, medical staffs and related clients. In addition, Epstein has served as an adjunct professor of health care law at the University of Houston Law Center for more than 20 years.

Beth Epstein, a native of Galva, Illinois, is an artist and active volunteer, serving on the advisory board of the University of Texas Medical Branch, the Galveston School of Allied Health Sciences and the board of Prevent Blindness in Galveston.

HOW THEY GAVE

A significant estate commitment coupled with annual outright gifts from the Epsteins will create a professorship as well as fund research and program support in health care law and policy in the U of I College of Law.

Longtime and generous donors, the Epsteins contribute annually to the Jon David and Elizabeth A. Epstein Health Care Law and Policy Fund. The couple’s plans also include establishment of a permanently endowed professorship, to be known as the Jon David and Elizabeth A. Epstein Professorship in Health Care Law and Policy.

WHY THEY GAVE

“Beth and I have had 35-plus years of a very blessed life together and we simply wanted to share our good fortune,” J.D. said. “Since I was one of the pioneers in the creation of the specialty of health law, I wanted to do something that would hopefully benefit the profession, the industry and the people served. By establishing the program in the U of I College of Law, hopefully that will be our legacy.”

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Heidi M. Hurd, dean of the College of Law and David C. Baum Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy as well as co-director of the Program in Law and Philosophy, said, “The extraordinary gift given by J.D. and Beth Epstein will fuel the ambitions of the College of Law and the larger Urbana-Champaign campus to be a leader in the multi-disciplinary development of health policy. Their generosity will support cutting-edge academic research, the development of practical policy papers, the exchange of information among legislators, regulators, policy analysts, and academics, and events that will involve the public in discussions of issues critical to health, aging, and the management of sickness. Few questions are more important today than how to finance costly medical care, how to distribute scarce medical resources, how to sort out the ethics of new medical technologies, and how to cultivate the sciences of wellness. In my view, the Epsteins have given a transformative gift — one that will put Illinois at the center of the most controversial and profound debates of the day.”