Robert N. Swidler, M.A., J.D.

Robert N. Swidler is co-instructor of Law & Bioethics, a Masters level course in the Columbia University Bioethics Program, a program within the university's School of Professional Studies.

Mr. Swidler was General Counsel to St. Peter's Health Partners (SPHP) from 2011 until July 2023 when he retired from that position. SPHP is a not-for-profit health care system that operates five NY Capital Region hospital campuses, including St. Peter's Hospital (Albany) and Samaritan Hospital (Troy), as well as seven nursing homes, home care, hospice, a large multispecialty physician practice and other health care facilities and services.

From 2022-23, Mr. Swidler was also General Counsel to St. Joseph’s Health, an affiliated not-for-profit health care system in Syracuse NY.

Previously, Mr. Swidler was:

• Counsel to Northeast Health (1998-2011);
• Attorney, Hiscock & Barclay, Albany NY (1995-98);
• Counsel to the NYS Office of Mental Health (1992-95);
• Assistant Counsel to Governor Mario Cuomo (1990-92);
• Staff Counsel to the NYS Task Force on Life and the Law (1985-90);
• Attorney, Webster & Sheffield, NYC (1984-85);
• Law Clerk, U.S. District Judge Neal P. McCurn, Northern District of NY (1982-84)

While at the NYS Task Force on Life and the Law, Mr. Swidler helped develop proposed NYS laws and regulations on brain death, do-not-resuscitate orders, health care proxies, organ transplantation and surrogate parenting arrangements – many of which were enacted.

While in the Governor’s Counsel’s office, he helped draft and secure enactment of numerous health laws, including NY’s Medicaid Managed Care Law, Health Care Proxy Law, Standby Guardianship Law and Early Intervention Services for Infants and Toddlers.

Later, he participated in negotiations among executive and legislative staff that led to New York's Family Health Care Decisions Act.

As General Counsel for SPHP and its predecessor Northeast Health for 25 years, Mr. Swidler handled a broad range of corporate, regulatory, medical staff, patient care, human subject research, physician contract, managed care contract, compliance investigations and other health law matters.

Mr. Swidler is a former President of the NYS Bar Association Health Law Section (1999-2000). For 15 years he was Editor of the NYSBA Health Law Journal (2003-2018), and he now is a member of the Journal’s Editorial Board. He is the principal author of the NYSBA’s Family Health Care Decisions Act Resource Center.

Mr. Swidler was a Governor’s appointee to Empire State Stem Cell Ethics Committee and the NYS Task Force on Life and the Law and is an adjunct faculty member of the Alden March Bioethics Center at Albany Medical College.

During the Covid pandemic, he helped form the Empire State Bioethics Consortium, and he is a current ESBC board member.

Mr. Swidler authored or co-authored about 40 published articles and book chapters on health law and medical ethics topics.

Mr. Swidler is a graduate of Columbia Law School ('82), SUNY Binghamton (BA '77, MA '78 U.S. History) and Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan ('72). He lives in Loudonville NY with his wife Kim, also an attorney. They have three adult children, Eric, Sarah and Alex.