College of Law Distinguished Professor Nina Kohn is helping to create “gold standard” legislation on some of the most important issues facing older adults and individuals with cognitive disabilities. Based on her legal expertise, including in the area of elder law, Kohn, the David M. Levy L’48 Professor of Law and newly named Distinguished Professor, has worked closely with the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) to create model legislation for the states.
Kohn has been selected not once, but twice, to serve as a reporter for the ULC. The first act she worked on with the ULC was the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship and Other Protective Arrangements Act (UGCOPPA), which the ULC describes as a “comprehensive guardianship statute for the 21st century” that encourages person-centered guardianship reform, including promoting less restrictive alternatives to guardianship. The second act was the Uniform Health-Care Decision Act (UHCDA), a model law governing advance directives and healthcare decision-making for patients without surrogates.
Distinguished Professor Nina Kohn (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)
Since joining the College of Law faculty in 2005, Kohn has been an active teacher and prolific scholar. Her research addresses a variety of legal topics associated with elder law, including age discrimination, family caregiving, elder abuse, and supported and surrogate decision making. She is also the author of the leading casebook on elder law. In addition, Kohn has taught on elder law, family law, trusts and estates, torts, and an interdisciplinary gerontology course. She has also served in a variety of public service roles for organizations such as the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute, and the Association of American Law Schools.
However, one of the highlights of her impressive career to date is being selected twice to be a reporter for the ULC, something she calls “the biggest compliment.”
“Being a reporter is part mediator and part editor, as you listen to and try to align the interests of diverse groups and commissioners,” says Kohn, noting that most states do not have the bandwidth to write this type of model law on their own. “Your function as a reporter is to enable a very deliberative, expert-informed, non-partisan approach that integrates various viewpoints and experiences into a model law that is as good as it can be.”
According to Kohn, the ULC model laws give states a solid, consistent starting point, which they may modify to suit their specific needs, budgets, or priorities. The details of the final laws are up to the individual state legislatures.
Kohn finds satisfaction in some recent successes in enacting the acts she has worked on. Consistent with the bipartisan nature of the acts, the UHCDA has been adopted into law in Delaware, a blue state, and Utah, a red state, in partisan efforts that will be beneficial to many. In addition, the UGCOPPA has been adopted in Maine, a blue state; the state of Washington, also a blue state; and Kansas, a red state.
She also believes that her expertise as a reporter has made her a better professor, as she is able to share with her students first-hand knowledge of cutting-edge legal debates and how the law is progressing on a state-by-state basis. Kohn reports that this work has also made her more sensitive about statutory drafting issues, and she has consequently spent more time in the classroom helping her students interpret, critique, and draft statutory language. She also says it has encouraged her to help students appreciate that even when people initially come at an issue from opposite viewpoints, there is often plenty of common ground to be discovered.
The work of a reporter can go on for years, but Kohn is prepared to stick with it in the hopes of seeing the two model laws enacted in as many states as possible.
“It’s hard to say ‘no’ when legislators are saying, ‘We’re interested in making our laws better. Can you help us?” she states. “It’s incredibly satisfying to be able to make a difference and see states improve their laws to make life better for families, patients, and health care providers. This process is an example of how we can work together in a partisan age, and it’s a source of pride to know that my work is helping to bridge differences and improve the law.”