It’s rare to meet a 100-year-old lawyer. It’s perhaps even rarer to sit with that lawyer and listen as they reflect on their life and career. Alexander Forger, who joined the centenarian club in February, recently gave the ABA Journal that opportunity.
The ABA House of Delegates passed a resolution Monday urging all law and policymaking bodies to adopt the Guardianship Bill of Rights, which recognizes 21 rights for adults who have a guardian.
Nina Kohn, a professor at the Syracuse University College of Law, has long focused on the intersection of the law and the experiences of older adults, including those who need long-term care. In recent months, she has helped draw attention to three policies that closely align with nursing home reforms the Biden administration announced in February.
Karen Murphy Jensen, a senior judge with Maryland’s Caroline County Circuit Court, has spent the past five years working to reform guardianship court practices. “Judges are really embracing wanting to know more about guardianship cases as well as the alternatives to guardianship,” says Jensen, the chair of the Guardianship and Vulnerable Adults Work Group of the Maryland Judicial Council’s Domestic Law Committee.
Feb 1, 2021 12:20 AM CST
Karen Murphy Jensen is working to reform guardianship practices. Photo courtesy of Maryland Judiciary.
Many legal services providers have worked in the past year to change how they reach and assist their clients, particularly those who are older and at higher risk for developing more severe cases of COVID-19. While some created or expanded their partnerships with community organizations, others moved their services online or outdoors.
Throughout the year, the ABA Journal publishes in-depth features on the business of the legal profession, developments in the law, lives that have been impacted by the justice system and the ways society influences—and is influenced by—the law. What follows are some of our favorite features from 2020.
Lawyers, law professors and even members of the judiciary voice concerns that judges are serving too much time on the bench without ensuring their cognitive skills stay sharp. They have called for mandatory retirement and cognitive testing as well as a more consistent approach to addressing cognitive decline. But members of the legal community who have experience with neuroscience argue that the question of when a judge should step down is complex.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has raised unprecedented legal questions for U.S. employers and employees who are older than 40 or who have a medical disability. Labor and employment attorneys say they are receiving a flood of complaints and questions about layoffs, firings and recalls to the workplace.
ABA President Judy Perry Martinez asked U.S. Senate leadership Monday to include S. 4182, the Emergency Support for Nursing Homes and Elder Justice Reform Act of 2020, in the next COVID-19 economic relief bill.
Many lawyers across the country are now using online video meetings to help senior clients arrange their affairs. This has become increasingly vital as the CDC warns that individuals who are age 65 or older and have underlying medical conditions are at higher risk for developing more severe cases of COVID-19.
The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus has renewed the focus on conditions inside the nation’s jails and prisons, many of which are struggling to implement proper cleaning and social distancing practices and protect their prisoners and staff. Elderly and sick prisoners have moved to the forefront of the conversation.
The ABA Journal spoke with elder law attorneys about how to identify some red flags or signs of elder abuse when they’re meeting with clients and how to respond to them.
Financial exploitation is just one component of elder law. It’s a growing area of practice that includes not only advance medical directives, estate planning, guardianship, probate and will contests, but also real estate, tax, employment, special needs, discrimination, domestic violence and Medicaid issues.
The ABA Journal wants to host and facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. We are now accepting thoughtful, non-promotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors.
