The American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

What The American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics does

The American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics (ASLME) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization founded in 1911 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It operates a portfolio of peer-reviewed publications and professional development programs at the intersection of law, health policy, ethics, and medicine, serving health law academics, practicing attorneys, healthcare professionals, bioethicists, and policy makers primarily across North America. The organization is led by a small staff of two — Executive Director Katie Kenney Johnson and Managing Editor Nicole Gustas — under the governance of a Board of Directors.

ASLME's core products are two peer-reviewed journals: the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME), with approximately 8,000 subscribers and a 50+ year archive, and the American Journal of Law & Medicine (AJLM), co-published with Boston University School of Law. Both journals are distributed through Cambridge University Press, which manages institutional subscriptions and Gold Open Access agreements covering 2,000+ institutions. The organization's flagship event is the annual Health Law Professors Conference, founded in 1978 and now in its 49th year (rotating host cities including Atlanta 2026 and St. Louis 2027). ASLME also produces free webinars on emerging topics (e.g., organ transplantation, AI in healthcare, cannabis law), the monthly ASLME Insider newsletter, and symposium-supported publishing programs for guest editors.

The business model is diversified across five revenue streams: tiered individual membership dues ($50 student/retired, $175 non-doctoral, $250 doctoral), institutional journal subscriptions routed through Cambridge University Press, conference registration fees, symposium publishing fees (positioned as lower than industry average), and tax-deductible donations (with lifetime membership awarded to donors of $10,000+). ASLME does not offer a software product; it is a content and community organization with a digital publishing platform built on ScholarOne (for JLME submissions), a WordPress website, email newsletter distribution, and Zoom-based virtual event delivery. The go-to-market motion is community-led: the organization grows primarily through academic credibility, peer networks across U.S. law schools, and the institutional pull of its two flagship journals.

Name

The American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

Legal name

The American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Website

https://aslme.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1911

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ASLME is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization founded in 1911 that publishes two peer-reviewed journals (JLME and AJLM) and runs the annual Health Law Professors Conference, serving health law academics, attorneys, healthcare professionals, bioethicists, and policy makers across North America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Health Law Publishing

NAICS

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Medical, Clinical & Biomedical Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Academic & Scholarly Journals Publishing (Peer-Reviewed) (MPAJABAC)

Keywords

• Health law publishing
• Bioethics research
• Legal medicine journals
• Health law conferences
• Professional membership services

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees at tiered rates (Doctoral $250, Non-Doctoral $175, Student/Retired $50) providing digital access to both journals, conference discounts, and member benefits
2. Institutional Subscriptions: Cambridge University Press handles institutional subscriptions for JLME and AJLM, with institutional agreements defraying open access costs for over 2,000 institutions
3. Conference Registration: Annual Health Law Professors Conference and other events generate revenue through registration fees; ASLME is an accredited sponsor of continuing legal education programs
4. Symposium Publishing Fees: Special issue and symposium publishing with lower-than-industry-average publishing fees to support guest editor programs and organizational mission
5. Donations: Tax-deductible donations as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit; donors of $10,000+ receive lifetime membership

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ASLME publishes two peer-reviewed journals at the intersection of law, medicine, and ethics—the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME) and the American Journal of Law & Medicine (AJLM)—and operates an annual Health Law Professors Conference, accredited CLE webinars, and a tiered individual membership program. Revenue is generated through individual memberships, institutional journal subscriptions distributed by Cambridge University Press, conference and event registration, symposium publishing, and tax-deductible donations as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Product overview

ASLME is a nonprofit educational organization offering a portfolio of publications and professional development programs. The core offerings consist of two peer-reviewed journals—The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (JLME) and The American Journal of Law and Medicine (AJLM)—published in partnership with Cambridge University Press. These are complemented by the annual Health Law Professors Conference and virtual webinar programming, many offering continuing education credits. ASLME membership provides digital access to both journals, conference registration discounts, and access to the ASLME Insider monthly newsletter. The organization does not offer a software-as-a-service product; rather, it provides educational content and community resources for professionals at the intersection of law, medicine, and ethics.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME)
• The American Journal of Law & Medicine (AJLM)
• Annual Health Law Professors Conference
• ASLME Individual Membership
• JLME Symposia / Supported Publishing Program

Quantifiable outcome

• 4,500+ healthcare professionals read JLME
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Saint Louis University Center for Health Law StudiescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 June 2027Saint Louis University Center for Health Law Studies hosts the 50th Annual Health Law Professors Conference in 2027. ASLME co-hosts this flagship event.
• New Mexico Law Review / Tribal Law JournalminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 October 2026Partnership for symposium 'The Collapse of Care: Addressing Rural Access, Federal Funding, & the Future of New Mexico Healthcare' to be held at University of New Mexico School of Law.
• Loyola University Chicago School of Law - Beazley Institute for Health Law and PolicycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 September 2026The Beazley Institute hosts the annual Wiet Life Science Law Scholars Workshop in partnership with ASLME. Loyola provides funding through alumnus Mitchell Wiet and his wife Fran Wiet for workshop participation including travel, hotel, and conference expenses.
• Center for Public Health Law Research, Temple University Beasley School of LawcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 August 2026ASLME partners with Temple University's Center for Public Health Law Research to host the Policy Surveillance Institute, teaching scientific legal mapping methods during a two-day intensive training seminar in Philadelphia.
• National Science Foundation (NSF) / ATP-BiocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 June 2026NSF Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio) co-sponsors the webinar on Frontier Issues in Organ Transplantation with ASLME and the University of Minnesota Consortium on Law and Values. Grant no. EEC 1941543 supports this collaboration.
• Consortium on Law and Values in Health Environment & the Life Sciences, University of MinnesotacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 June 2026University of Minnesota's Consortium co-sponsors webinars and events with ASLME on topics at intersection of law, values, health, environment, and life sciences. Partners on the Frontier Issues in Organ Transplantation webinar.
• Georgia State University College of LawcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 June 2026Georgia State University College of Law hosts the 49th Annual Health Law Professors Conference in 2026. ASLME co-hosts this flagship annual event.
• Northeastern University School of LawminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Northeastern University School of Law helped facilitate ASLME's first virtual Health Law Professors Conference in 2021 during the pandemic.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2002In 2002, ASLME co-hosted first 'Public Health and the Law' conference with CDC.
• Boston University School of LawcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1977AJLM is co-published by ASLM and Boston University School of Law. ASLM co-hosted first Health Law Teachers conference at Boston University in 1978.
• Cambridge University PresscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCambridge University Press is the publisher for JLME and AJLM institutional subscriptions. Manages Gold Open Access publishing, institutional agreements, and article processing charges. Over 2,000 institutions have agreements to defray open access costs.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• American Medical Association (AMA): AMA operates the world's largest medical publisher (JAMA Network) and is a membership-based professional organization. It shares ASLME's combination of membership, peer-reviewed publishing, and conferences, but at vastly greater scale and broader scope.
• National Academy of Medicine (NAM): NAM is a much larger institution that publishes influential reports and proceedings on health, medicine, and policy. While its scope is broader, it overlaps with ASLME's role as a convener and publisher at the intersection of medicine, ethics, and policy.
• American Bar Association - Health Law Section: The ABA Health Law Section serves a much broader legal professional audience with overlapping subject matter. While ASLME focuses specifically on health law scholarship and teaching, the ABA section serves practicing attorneys at scale, making it a broader incumbent in the same content space.

Direct peers

• American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH): ASBH is a membership-based professional organization at the intersection of medicine, ethics, and related humanities — directly overlapping with ASLME's ethics-focused mission. It runs annual conferences, member benefits, and scholarly publishing activities with a closely comparable business model.
• The Hastings Center: The Hastings Center is a nonprofit bioethics research institute that publishes peer-reviewed scholarship (Hastings Center Report) on bioethics topics. It shares ASLME's focus on the law-medicine-ethics intersection, though it operates more as a research institute than a membership society.
• American Health Law Association (AHLA): AHLA is a professional membership organization serving health law practitioners, with publications, educational programming, and conferences directly comparable to ASLME's journal and conference model. Both target the intersection of law and healthcare, but AHLA skews more practitioner-focused while ASLME is more academic.

Emerging players

• Health Affairs (journal): Health Affairs is a leading peer-reviewed health policy journal with a broader readership than ASLME's journals. It competes for institutional subscriptions and author submissions in adjacent scholarly territory, though it is not membership-based.
• Milbank Quarterly: Milbank Quarterly is a peer-reviewed journal publishing scholarly analysis of health policy. It shares subject matter overlap with ASLME's journals and competes for institutional library budget, though it is not a membership society.
• Network for Public Health Law: The Network for Public Health Law is a nonprofit that supports public health practitioners and attorneys with legal resources, training, and convening — overlapping with ASLME's public health law programming and CDC-co-hosted conferences.

Others

• Cambridge University Press: Cambridge University Press is ASLME's publishing and institutional subscription partner for JLME and AJLM. As a major academic publisher, CUP shares the scholarly publishing business model and is an enabler/distributor rather than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCVDwpfKsWlWYl22u3DWi74A
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/american-society-of-law-medicine-&-ethics
• Xx.com/ASLMENews
• Facebookfacebook.com/117566440837

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics