College of Law, Syracuse Law Review Host Fourth National Guardianship Summit

Convened by the National Guardianship Network and hosted by the College of Law and Syracuse Law Review, the Fourth National Guardianship Summit takes place virtually May 10-14. Participants will discuss the current state of the nation’s guardianship system and develop recommendations for future reform, with the summit organized around the theme of “Maximizing Autonomy and Ensuring Accountability.”

“Syracuse Law is truly honored to host the Fourth Summit. This invitation-only event brings together the nation’s leading experts in  guardianship and alternatives to guardianship, as well as international observers,” says Nina A. Kohn, David M. Levy Professor of Law and faculty director of online education. “Participants will work together through a series of working groups and structured discussions to create a consensus agenda for the next decade’s law reform in this area.” 

This Fourth Summit is the first such summit held since 2011. In that time, the United States has undergone dramatic demographic shifts in aging and disability populations, continued reform of state guardianship law, a new uniform guardianship act (for which Kohn served as Reporter) and the evolution of the concept of supported decision-making as an autonomy-increasing alternative to guardianship.

 Nevertheless, reports of financial exploitation and abuse by guardians, as well as limited resources to track and monitor their activity, continue to make headlines.

The Fourth Summit will address many of these issues, with discussions of guardianship abuse, limited guardianship and conservatorship, protective arrangements in lieu of guardianship, supported decision-making, judicial accountability, monitoring of guardians, and more. The full agenda can be viewed here. 

“Syracuse Law Review is excited to co-host this important event,” says second-year law student Hilda Frimpong, incoming Law Review editor-in-chief. “My editorial team and I will publish many of the summit’s presented papers in a forthcoming volume. It is an amazing opportunity to be involved in such critical reform conversation while still in law school and to know that the resulting volume will be a go-to resource for guardianship reform for years to come.”  

In addition to Frimpong, the following law students will serve as working group co-hosts throughout the week: third-year students Ki-jana Crawford and Nikkia Knudsen, second-year students  Elizabeth Dannan, Leita Powers and Grace Sullivan and first-year students Penelope Boettiger and Isaac Kelvin Onyango.