Guardianship Reform Legislation: An Attorney’s Guide to Identifying and Advocating for Better Systems

Diana Noel is a Senior Legislative Representative at the AARP.

Rob’s practice focuses on guardianship, probate, trust, and vulnerable adult proceedings, including litigation when appropriate. Rob also advises fiduciaries and beneficiaries on their rights and responsibilities.

Nina A. Kohn is the David M. Levy Professor of Law and Faculty Director of Online Education at Syracuse University College of Law, a faculty affiliate with the Syracuse University Aging Studies Institute, and a member of the American Law Institute. She is also the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Elder Law with the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School. She has served as a Visiting Professor at Yale Law School and at the University of Maine School of Law.

In her prior role as Associate Dean for Online Education, Professor Kohn developed JD interactive, the nation’s first fully interactive online J.D. program. In her current role as Faculty Director of Online Education, she guides the program’s ongoing development and supports faculty teaching online.

Professor Kohn’s scholarly research focuses on elder law and the civil rights of older adults and persons with diminished cognitive capacity. Her work has appeared in diverse for a including the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Washington University Law Review, and The Washington Post. Her recent articles have addressed family caregiving, supported and surrogate decision-making, financial exploitation of the elderly, vulnerability and discrimination in old age, the practical and constitutional implications of elder abuse legislation, the potential for an elder rights movement, and legal education.

The author of Elder Law: Practice, Policy & Problems (Wolters Kluwer, 2d ed. 2020), consistent with her research interests Professor Kohn teaches elder law, family law, trusts and estates, torts, and an interdisciplinary gerontology course.

Professor Kohn has served in a variety of public interest roles, including Reporter for the Third Revision of the Uniform Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act. She currently serves as the Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s Study Group on the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act; Co-Chair of the Elder Rights Committee of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section of the American Bar Association; Co-Director of the Aging, Law, and Society Collaborative Research Network; and Vice Chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Mental Disability.

Professor Kohn earned an A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard University. She clerked for the Hon. Fred I. Parker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Following her clerkship, she was awarded a fellowship by the Skadden Fellowship Foundation to provide direct representation to nursing home residents and frail elders. She is a past recipient of the College of Law’s Res Ipsa Loquitur award recognizing excellence in teaching, and Syracuse University’s Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Distinguished Faculty Fellowship.

Ben Orzeske is Chief Counsel at the Uniform Law Commission. He supervises a staff of three legislative attorneys who work to enact uniform laws in all fifty United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ben provides legislative support for the Uniform Commercial Code and for uniform laws in the areas of real property, trusts and estates, investment management, and elder law. He also serves as the ULC's internal Legal Counsel

Ben is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and DePaul University College of Law, and makes his home in Chicago.