About
The purpose of the Committee on Psychiatry and the Law of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry is to further understanding among both professionals and the public regarding issues broadly concerned with the interface of mental health and the legal system.
Composed of psychiatrists who work in both the civil and criminal branches of forensic psychiatry and related fields, the committee’s scholarly output draws upon wide-ranging disciplines including behavioral health, jurisprudence, legal philosophy, ethics, sociology and history to produce an array of books, articles, reports, commentaries and web-based products aimed at grappling with—and, ideally, bringing increased clarity to—the most challenging medico-legal questions in contemporary psychiatry. The committee also remains deeply committed to ensuring that forensic psychiatry is practiced with compassion, equity, probity and to the highest moral, medical and legal standards.
Our Committee
Jacob M. Appel, MD, JD
Jacob M. Appel is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, where he is Director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry, Medical Director of the Mental Health Clinic at the East Harlem Health Outreach Program and Assistant Director of the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities. Jacob is also the author of five literary novels, ten short story collections, an essay collection, a cozy mystery, a thriller, a volume of poems and a compendium of dilemmas in medical ethics. He currently serves as co-chair of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry’s Committee on Psychiatry and Law and as Vice President/Treasurer of the National Book Critics Circle. More at: www.jacobmappel.com
Peter Ash, MD
Peter Ash is a forensic child and adolescent psychiatrist. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta where he directs the forensic psychiatry service. He is a past president of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association, and the Georgia Council on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. His current research interests include malpractice, adolescent culpability, in-jail restoration of competency to stand trial, mental health problems that affect lawyers’ fitness to practice, and expanded states of consciousness. Further information about Dr. Ash can be read in a published biography article available online at http://www.jaapl.org/content/39/1/12.full
Charles D. Cash, JD, LLM
Charles D. Cash, Associate Director of Risk Manager at Professional Risk Management Services (PRMS), is a healthcare attorney and risk manager. He contributes to publications and speaks nationally on risk management in the practice of psychiatry. His professional interests lie at the intersection of the law and psychiatry. Prior to joining the Risk Management Department at PRMS, he served as an Assistant Public Defender for several years in the Mental Health Division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.
Mr. Cash received his law degree from Quinnipiac College School of Law and his Master of Laws in Health Law from DePaul University School of Law. He is a member of the bar in Maryland.
Susan Hatters Friedman, MD, DFAPA
Susan Hatters Friedman is a forensic and reproductive psychiatrist. Dr. Friedman is past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL), and has served as Chair of the Law and Psychiatry committee at the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP). She received the Seymour Pollack Award for her contributions to teaching and educational functions of forensic psychiatry, the AAPL award for the Best Teacher in a Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship, the Red AAPL award for outstanding service to forensic psychiatry, the Manfred Guttmacher Award for editing the book Family Murder: Pathologies of Love and Hate with GAP, and the Association of Women Psychiatrists’ Marian Butterfield award for her contributions to maternal mental health. Susan currently serves as the inaugural Phillip Resnick Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, where she also has appointments in the departments of Pediatrics, Reproductive Biology (Obstetrics/ Gynecology), and Law.
Richard Lesesne Frierson, MD
Richard Frierson is the Alexander G. Donald Professor of Psychiatry and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, South Carolina. He is Past President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and the South Carolina Psychiatric Association. He received AAPL’s Award for Most Outstanding Teacher in a Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship in 2006 and the Seymour Pollack Award in 2016 for distinguished lifetime contributions to the teaching and educational functions of forensic psychiatry. He has received the Steven Von Reisling Lecturer of Merit Award from the National College of District Attorneys. He is currently chair of the Forensic Psychiatry Certification Committee at the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and serves on the Review Committee for Psychiatry at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). He is co-editor of the APA Textbook of Forensic Psychiatry.
Abhishek Jain, MD
Abhishek Jain is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry with Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the statewide Medical Director of the Division of Forensic Services for the New York State Office of Mental Health. He is board-certified in Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, and Consultation Psychiatry. He currently serves as a Councilor for American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) and has served as President of the Midwest Chapter of AAPL and a Corresponding Member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Psychiatry and the Law. He has also been the citywide Director of the New York City Forensic Psychiatric Evaluation Court Clinics and the Program Director of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (UPMC/WPIC). He completed Psychiatry Residency at UPMC/WPIC, Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio), and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship at Cleveland Clinic.
Jacqueline Landess, MD, JD
Jacqueline Landess is a forensic psychiatrist. Dr. Landess completed her legal training during medical school before going on to gain experience in child and adolescent psychiatry after which she completed forensic training. She is the director of the forensic psychiatry fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin and serves as a consultant to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Bureau of Forensic Community Services. She holds leadership roles in several professional societies including: President-Elect of the Wisconsin Psychiatric Association, President of the Dane County Medical Society, and is Women’s Councillor for the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law. Dr. Landess’s professional and research interests include: fitness for duty evaluations and physician health programs, malpractice, best practices for competency to proceed and insanity evaluations, and training/education of general and forensic psychiatry trainees.
Richard Martinez, MD, MH, DLFAPA
Richard Martinez is the Robert D. Miller Professor of Forensic Psychiatry and Director of Forensic Psychiatry Services and Training at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. He completed a Masters in Humanities degree at the University of Colorado and completed fellowships in bioethics and professional ethics at Harvard Medical School and the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Professional Ethics at Harvard University. He is former president of the Association of Directors of Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Programs, former councillor and vice-president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, co-editor of the “Reflections and Narratives” section of the J Am Acad Psych and Law, and chair of the APA’s Council on Psychiatry and Law. He has written on numerous topics in professional ethics, law and psychiatry, end of life care, informed consent and boundaries, and a book on ethics in forensic practice.
Phillip J. Resnick, MD
Phillip J. Resnick is a Professor of Psychiatry at Case School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Resnick has served as a distinguished visiting professor at 14 universities and has been on the editorial board of six major journals. He was the director of the Forensic Psychiatry Review Course for the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law for 31 years. Dr. Resnick served as a consultant in many high profile cases, including those of Jeffrey Dahmer, Susan Smith, Timothy McVeigh, Andrea Yates, Scott Peterson, Casey Anthony, Nikolas Cruz, Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, and James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado Batman movie shooter. Dr. Resnick is a past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. He has published over 215 articles and book chapters. He has lectured in 49 states and 25 countries.
Renee Sorrentino, MD
Renee Sorrentino is the medical director at the Institute for Sexual Wellness and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sorrentino is a Board Certified Forensic Psychiatrist with expertise in the evaluation and treatment of individuals with paraphilias. Dr. Sorrentino received her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and completed a residency in adult psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital. Following her residency, Dr. Sorrentino completed a forensic psychiatry fellowship at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Sorrentino’s practice is devoted to the treatment and evaluation of paraphilias and sexual offenders as well as the hormonal treatment of paraphilias.