Changes in health care structure following World War II brought the need for increased legislation, regulations, and court oversight to the industry. Professor Arthur Southwick of the Michigan Business School was a leader in developing these diverse sources into a coherent framework that enabled academics, healthcare leaders, and students to understand this emerging area of law. 

According to Wharton Professor Arnold Rosoff, Southwick's book, The Law of Hospital and Health Care Administration, first published in 1978, "was a central fixture in the field's literature and the means by which countless numbers of hospital administrators learned about the laws that so significantly defined their field of practice." In this way, Southwick was a thought leader in developing healthcare law. In addition to his intellectual leadership in the healthcare field, Southwick served on the State Health Planning Advisory Council in Michigan and played a key role in founding what has become the 12,500-member American Health Law Association.