Student Spotlight
Villiers Terblanche
Partner , Latham & Watkins LLP
Residence: New York, USA Nationality: South Africa
Class of 2025
Many are inspired to pursue a career in healthcare through personal experience—for instance, whether they or a loved one had a serious illness or injury that was dealt with brilliantly. For Villiers Terblanche, a partner at a major global law firm, it took family tragedy to motivate him to leave the law behind and explore where he could best contribute to improving the healthcare system.
His oldest son, Sam, a junior at Columbia University majoring in climate change and economics, died in late 2023 after a short illness that the emergency department of a major New York hospital diagnosed as an acute viral syndrome two nights in a row and suggested treatment with Tylenol. Sam died in his dorm room shortly after being discharged from the ER the second time.
In the aftermath, family friends who work in healthcare rallied around the Terblanche family, among other things helping them find out how such an outcome was possible in New York City in 2023. “It is really a daunting experience for a layperson to make sense of medical records, autopsies, infectious disease and emergency medicine experts, healthcare insurers, standards of care, patient safety protocols and otherwise navigating what so many grieving families experience as obliterating complexity,” Terblanche said.
The legal field had always been Terblanche’s career choice. He grew up in South Africa, “with lots of sunshine, grilling outdoors, sport, politics and religion (roughly in order of priority)” and had initially planned to return there as a constitutional or civil rights lawyer after finishing his legal education in the United States. But by the time he finished law school, South Africa had a modern constitution, so he joined a large New York-based firm as an associate for what he thought would only be a year or two before returning. “Globalization was really taking off around that time, New York became home, and my work took me to 60-something countries and exposed me to industries from airports and AI to undersea telecom cables and zoology.” He specialized in infrastructure development and financing, focusing on heavily regulated industries. “Infrastructure is often a public good, and I love driving over a bridge or past a solar power plant or landing at an airport or visiting a national park or university campus that I worked on. I loved every minute of my 30 years in law.”
Life changed when tragedy struck. “The unexpected death of a child reshuffles priorities.” He took the momentous decision to reconsider the practice of law and explore opportunities to do good in the healthcare sphere. “I was looking for public health program options, but once I saw the NYU Law NYU Wagner MS in Health Law and Strategy Program curriculum it was clear this program is the right fit for me. I was most interested in the intersection of healthcare policy, financial incentives, technology and—most importantly—public welfare.”
“The program has exceeded my expectations so far, and I love the way the curriculum ties a wide range of topics together. We have great faculty, an amazing cohort from a wide range of backgrounds, and the secret sauce is the interdisciplinary approach. Some classes are closer to your day job and others challenge you outside your comfort zone. It is ideal for my purposes, and I feel confident about starting a second career in healthcare. The older dog is learning a new trick.”