The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners awarded Mitchell Hamline School of Law and United Family Medicine a 2018 Ramsey County Public Health Award for the important work being done through their Medical-Legal Partnership. This partnership helps clinic patients address legal issues that affect their health.
Mitchell Hamline students participate in the Medical-Legal Partnership by enrolling in the Health Law Clinic course, which allows them to provide legal assistance to patients under the supervision of attorney and clinical instructor Ana Pottratz Acosta. 
On Tuesday, April 3, Health Law Clinic students Julie Le, 2L, and 3Ls April Lande and Hannah Holloran, joined Pottratz-Acosta and United Family Medicine staff at the Ramsey County Courthouse to receive the award. Ramsey County Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire ’88 presented the award.
The annual awards, sponsored by the Saint Paul – Ramsey County Public Health Department, recognize individuals and groups who have made exceptional contributions to improving health by advancing health equity in the county.
The Medical-Legal Partnership team is on-site at United Family Medicine three days a week, meeting with patients in a location they know and trust. Over the course of the partnership, the students and managing attorney have met with more than 300 patients. Major issues addressed include understanding short-term disability, the Family and Medical Leave Act, employment discrimination and employee rights, immigrant laws and rights, landlord tenant laws, and the basics of Social Security.
United Family Medicine is a community-based clinic providing comprehensive, patient-centered primary care to low-income and medically underserved residents in St. Paul. The Medical-Legal Partnership allows lawyers and medical providers to collaborate as an integrated team to address the needs of low-income patients, whose unmet legal needs keep them from getting and staying healthy.