2014 National Aging and Law Conference
The Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging is a co-sponsor of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging's October 2014 National Aging and Law Conference in Washington, D.C. The conference will bring together substantive law, policy, and legal service development and delivery practitioners from across the country. The program will include sessions on Medicare, Medicaid, guardianship, elder abuse, legal ethics, legal service program development and delivery, consumer law, income security, and other issues.
Borchard Center co-director, Edward D. Spurgeon, will present, along with current fellow Adrienne Lyon Buenavista, on Supporting the Next Generation of Elder Law Attorneys: The Borchard Law & Aging Fellowship Experience. Catheryn Koss, former Borchard fellow and the Center's Fellows Coordinator will present with Professor Nina A. Kohn of the University of Syracuse College of Law (and a past recipient of a Borchard academic research grant) on Lawyers for Wards? Legal & Ethical Barriers to Protecting the Rights of Persons Subject to Guardianship.
Third National Guardianship Summit 2011
The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging was a co-sponsor of the Third National Guardianship Summit that convened on October 13 to 15, 2011, at the S.J. Quinney College of Law of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. With 92 delegates, observers, authors, funders and facilitators participating, the Summit was a consensus conference on post-appointment guardian performance and decision-making for adults.
The Summit delegates adopted a far-reaching set of recommendations for Guardian Standards, as well as additional Recommendations for action by courts, legislatures and other entities. These documents from the Summit offer the groundwork for nationally recognized standards for guardians of adults.
The Summit was supported by grants from the State Justice Institute, the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging, and contributions from the National Guardianship Network (NGN) and co-sponsoring organizations. Borchard Center delegates included Edward D. Spurgeon, Co-Director, Catheryn Koss, former Borchard Fellow and Director of the Senior Law Resource Center in Oklahoma City, and Mary Jane Ciccarello, Co-Director, who was also a group facilitator.
In preparation for the Summit, the NGN commissioned nine papers by 17 experts. In addition, the existing National Guardianship Association Standards of Practice, and 12 Summit Issue Briefs helped to inform the attendees and spur thorough consideration of issues. The Issue Briefs included Recommendations from a Family Guardian Focus Group convened by NGN planners to promote family guardian input; and a summary by the National Organization to End Elder Abuse and Guardianship Abuse. For the Standards, Recommendations, Issue Briefs, paper authors and topics, and a list of all the sponsors, see www.guardianshipsummit.org.
The summit proceedings, commissioned papers and recommendations, were published in a special issue of the Utah Law Review, Volume 2012, Number 3.
Facilitating Voting as People Age: Implications of Cognitive Impairment 2007
The Borchard Foundation Center co-sponsored a conference on March 21-24, 2007 at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law at Sacramento, California. The goal of this conference was to facilitate voting by older persons with cognitive disabilities while avoiding fraud and exploitation of this vulnerable population. The conference brought together leaders with multidisciplinary perspectives on the legal issues that impact voting by aging persons with differing levels of cognitive impairment. The conference proceedings, recommendations and commissioned papers were published in a special Symposium issue, Volume 38, Issue 4, of the McGeorge Law Review.
Vulnerable Adult Financial Abuse Conference 2003
On April 25, 2003, the Borchard Foundation Center co-sponsored a day-long conference onvulnerable adult financial abuse with the S.J. Quinney College of Lawand Utah Adult Protective Services. The participants, which included lawyers, judges, law enforcement and adult protective services, examined the financial abuse and exploitation of vulnerable adults in Utah, focusing on the extent of the problem and exploring viable remedies.
Wingspan 2001
The Second National Guardianship Conference known as Wingspan convened at Stetson University College of Law on November 30-December 1, 2001, more than a decade after Wingspread. By invitation only, Wingspan gathered a multi-disciplinary group of experts to collaborate in writings and in workshops on the extent of and recommendations for further guardianship reform. Stetson University College of Law was the primary academic sponsor with co-sponsorship provided by the Borchard Foundation Center, the ABA Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly, the National College of Probate Judges, the Supervisory Council of the ABA Section on Real Property Probate and Trust, the National Guardianship Association, the Center for Medicare Advocacy, the Arc of the United States and the Center for Social Gerontology. Commissioned papers and conference recommendations were published in XXXI 2002 Stetson Law Review (2003).
Borchard Conference 2000
The Borchard Foundation Center served as the convener, organizer and primary sponsor for a national conference on legal and ethical issues in the progression of dementia held November 29-December 2, 2000 in Athens, Georgia. Multidisciplinary experts invited to be part of this unique conference collaborated to produce a set of recommendations and articles addressing the legal and ethical dilemmas presented by the progression of dementia. Conference co-sponsors included the ABA Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly, the Alzheimer's Association, the National Academy of Elder Lawyers, and the University of Georgia School of Law. Conference papers and recommendations were published in 35 Georgia Law Review, No. 2, Winter 2001.
