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Mission

The Center for Law, Brain & Behavior puts the most accurate and actionable neuroscience in the hands of judges, lawyers, policymakers and journalists—people who shape the standards and practices of our legal system and affect its impact on people’s lives. We work to make the legal system more effective and more just for all those affected by the law.

 

edersheim 150x150 newDr. Judith Edersheim is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and an attending Psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry at  Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Edersheim graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and attended law school at Harvard, where she graduated cum laude. She was a law clerk to the Honorable Robert W. Sweet, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and practiced law at the firm of Hill and Barlow before returning to Harvard Medical School. She was an intern at the Mount Auburn Hospital and received her clinical psychiatry training at the Cambridge Hospital adult psychiatry residency program. Dr. Edersheim completed a fellowship in the Law and Psychiatry service at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts and is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, with added qualifications in Forensic Psychiatry.

Dr. Edersheim has performed a wide variety of forensic evaluations in both civil and criminal settings, including evaluations of competencies to stand trial, testamentary capacity, the capacity to make medical decisions, fitness for duty, the assessment of emotional damages, diminished capacity and criminal responsibility. She is a principal lecturer in the forensic psychiatry fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and teaches forensic psychiatry to adult psychiatry residents at Massachusetts General and McLean Hospitals.  Dr. Edersheim teaches extensively in the legal arena, including lectures sponsored by the Boston Bar Association, the Judicial Institute, and the Mental Health Legal Advisor’s Committee.  She had been a member of several non-profit boards, including the Mental Health Legal Advisor’s Committee and the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Edersheim’s research interest is in the translation of psychiatric and neurologic behavior into legal settings. She has published articles regarding the intersection of legal and medical concepts in peer reviewed medical journals such as the Journal of the American Academy of Law and Psychiatry and The Clinical Companion to the Journal of Primary Care and in legal journals such as the Massachusetts Family Law Journal.  She has been a featured speaker locally, regionally and nationally regarding issues pertaining to neuroscience, psychiatry and the law.

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