 After practicing as a family physician, he returned to Harvard Law School for his Juris Doctor.After clerking on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, he practiced law for two years before joining the American Medical Association, where he served as Ethics and Health Policy Counsel and directed the AMA's division of medical ethics.While there, he drafted the AMA's first ever Patients' Bill of Rights, guidelines for physician investment in health care facilities that were incorporated into federal law, and guidelines on gifts to physicians from industry that have become the industry standard and a standard recognized by the federal government.