WTLS Attorney Jonathan Steen Published in ABA TortSource on Medical-Legal Partnerships
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West Tennessee Legal Services is proud to announce that Jonathan Steen, our Medical-Legal Partnership Director, has been published in the American Bar Association’s TortSource (Spring 2026 issue). His article, “Lawyers on the Healthcare Team: Why MLPs Matter,” explores a model of legal aid that many attorneys — and members of the public — may not yet be familiar with, but one that is quietly transforming outcomes for vulnerable families across the country.
The article opens with a familiar scenario for many healthcare providers: a child with severe asthma keeps returning to the emergency room, despite consistent medical treatment. It’s only when someone asks “What is happening in the home?” that the real cause comes to light — a rental unit with persistent mold and water damage, and a landlord who has ignored repeated requests for repairs.
As Jonathan writes, this is where the problem stops being purely medical and becomes legal. Across the country, hospitals and clinics are recognizing that unresolved civil legal issues — unsafe housing, denied insurance claims, public benefits disputes, and more — often undermine medical treatment, drive up healthcare costs, and contribute to poor patient outcomes.
That’s where Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) come in. MLPs embed legal professionals directly into healthcare settings, where they work side-by-side with physicians, nurses, social workers, and case managers to identify and resolve the legal issues standing in the way of a patient’s health and stability. The model is supported nationally by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University.
The legal issues MLP attorneys handle are often issues civil practitioners already know well, including:
Jonathan leads WTLS’s efforts to integrate legal aid into healthcare settings across West Tennessee, helping to address the social and legal barriers that so often stand between patients and better health. With over 30 years of experience, his work reflects WTLS’s broader commitment to meeting clients where they are — including, increasingly, in the exam room as well as the courtroom.
We’re grateful for the opportunity this article gives us to share that work with a national legal audience, and proud of Jonathan for representing WTLS so well.
Read the full article on the American Bar Association’s website: Lawyers on the Healthcare Team: Why MLPs Matter