The PDF in which this article appears can be dowloaded here: Bifocal Vol. 43 Issue 1.
Each September 1, a new roster of Law and Aging Commissioners is appointed by the ABA president. Most Commissioners serve for multiple years with a handful of new faces starting in any given year. This year, we have a new Chair and five new Commissioners. You will find them to be a diverse and highly expert group in their individual disciplines.
Below, you will find biographies of our incoming Chair and our five new Commissioners.
ROBYN S. SHAPIRO, CHAIR is currently the Health Law Sections delegate to the House of Delegates and a special advisor to the Health Law and Ethics Committee of the Section on CRSJ. She is the founder of the Health Sciences Law Group in Milwaukee, WI. Robyn provides legal counsel on matters relating to health care compliance, research compliance, corporate compliance, bioethics, medical staff matters, health information privacy, and corporate and commercial issues faced by pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and health care providers. She will bring to the Commission both ABA leadership skills and broad experience in health sciences which intimately impacts older Americans every day. She has expressed her enthusiastic willingness to be appointed as chair. She knows the Commission's work from a prior appointment as a member 2013 -2016.
Within the ABA, Robyn has also been chair of the Coordinating Group on Bioethics and the Law (1996-1998), chair of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities (2007-2008), and a Delegate to the House of Delegates (2015-present). She was also a board member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (1997-2000) and an ABA Advisor to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws Committee on Misuse of Genetic Information (2002-2010). Robyn is also a frequent presenter at national conferences and seminars on health care and research compliance issues, and she has authored more than 60 articles and book chapters on these and other topics, including ethics in research, genome sequencing, Alzheimer’s disease, and related bioethics topics. The Commission will benefit immeasurably from her appointment as chair.
JOHN J. FORD has enjoyed a fifty year career in legal services and has been the Director of the Elder Law Project at the Northeast Justice Center in Lynn, MA since 1977. He has been a key figure in litigation and administrative advocacy in many issues impacting older adults, notably in the areas of the rights of nursing home residents and the un-befriended who lack capacity and a support system. He was principal author and editor of “A Guide for Elders” the premier self-help resource available to older adults in Massachusetts (U. Mass. Gerontology Institute) and “A Handbook for Guardians of Nursing Home Residents in Massachusetts” (2005). He is Past President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (1999) and recipient of the chapter’s John J. Ford Litigation Advocacy Award (2017) and past President of the South Boston; Community Health Center; currently he serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Advocates for Nursing Home Reform and of the Public Guardianship Services, LLC, and is a member of the Massachusetts Guardianship Policy Institute.
His work has been recognized with many local and national awards and recognitions, including the Paul Lichterman Award of the National Conference on Law and Aging and the Powley and Theresa Awards of NAELA, and the Greater Lynn Bar Association John J. Ford Public Service Award (1917). He was inducted into the National Association of Legal Services Developers’ Elder Rights Advocacy Hall of Fame. He has been a frequent contributor to the MCLE and MBA CLE educational programs. He received his law education at the Boston University School of law.
RONALD C. LONG is the Head of Aging Client Services for Wells Fargo. In this role, he leads a team that works with all of Wells Fargo’s business units to help them stay abreast of the changing regulatory environment concerning issues related to the aging client. Ron has visited regulators and agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia ensuring that they are aware of the challenges facing the older banking and brokerage client, and helping promote solutions that will help protect them from elder financial abuse. With his leadership, Ron is helping all business lines focus on day-to-day needs for aging clients and their families.
He has been a panelist on regulatory issues and is very active in industry organizations, chairing SIFMA’s State Legislation and Regulation Committee in 2015. He was the lead author of a number of comment letters and white papers in the aging area. Since 2006, Ron has taken an influential role in the securities industry in reviewing how it engages its older clients. He has spoken at numerous conferences including the Institutes of Medicine, American Society on Aging, International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and the White House Conference on Aging to name a few. He has given numerous interviews on elder financial abuse to the financial media and other mainstream publications. He is a recipient of the Barbara McGinity Service to Seniors Award presented by the National Adult Protective Services Association and he was chosen as one of 12 Influencers in Aging for 2019 by the publication Next Avenue.
Prior to his current position, Ron worked in Wachovia Securities’ Legal Department starting in June 2002, heading up the team focused on regulatory inquiries. Before joining Wachovia Securities, Ron was the District Administrator of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Philadelphia District Office and worked as a Counselor to Chairman Arthur Levitt. Ron started his legal career as an associate with the San Jose, California law firm of Hoge, Fenton, Jones and Appel, Inc. He is a graduate of Williams College and received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
CAMILLA O. MCRORY concentrates her practice in the interdisciplinary field of Elder Law and Disability Rights. She is a graduate of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1978. Ms. McRory served as the inaugural Chair of the Elder Law and Disability Rights Section of the Maryland State Bar Association from January 15, 1994 through June of 1995, and completed serving the second of the two permitted two year terms as a member of the Section Council in June of 2004, returning to service on the Section Council as of July 2005, then served again as Chair from June 2012 to June 2013, and continued to serve as a member of the Section Council to June of 2018. She served as Maryland State Coordinator for the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys from 1990 to 1998, served as Vice-President of the Maryland/District of Columbia Chapter, created circa 2000 until 01 November 2018 when she became Chair of the Chapter. She served as the Maryland State Bar Association representative to the Advisory Board for the Maryland Attorney General Project on Care at End of Life.
Ms. McRory served on the Board of Directors for the Montgomery County Bar Foundation from 1988 through June 2011, and was Treasurer of that Foundation from 1992 to 1993. She served as the attorney representative on the Montgomery County Adult Public Guardianship Review Board from June of 1993 through November of 1995. She served on the Board of Governors for the Maryland State Bar Association from 1992 to 1994. Ms. McRory served as Treasurer of the Bar Association of Montgomery County 1991 to 1992, and as a member of its Executive Committee from 1988 to 1992. She received the 2007 Community Ministry of Montgomery County (now InterfaithWorks of Montgomery County) Humanitarian of the Year Award.
RAJIV NAGAICH is an elder law attorney licensed to practice in the State of Washington. Rajiv teaches elder law at the University of Washington as an adjunct professor and guest lectures at other Law Schools. He is a published author on the subject and teaches his unique planning methods with other elder law attorneys.
Rajiv hosts a weekly radio show dedicated to the needs of those aspiring towards successful aging and those struggling with the issue. He is a past President of Life Care Planning Law Firm’s Association, a board member at Washington Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, member of the advisory committee at John Marshall School of Law and active with many other organizations.
He is nationally recognized for his cutting-edge work with seniors for which he was inducted as a fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys in 2014, becoming a handful of attorneys to receive this distinction. He received a bachelor’s Degree from India, his J.D. from Seattle University and L.L.M. from University of Washington.
Rajiv’s desire to serve the senior community outside of his law practice led him to help organize Washington Elder Care and he remains active with the organization as its founding member and officer.
JENNIFER VANDERVEEN is an Elder Law Attorney who has been a consistent leader in the Elder Law field and will bring valuable expertise and experience to the Commission. She is certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation. She graduated from Albion College in 1996 and received her J.D. from the University of Michigan in 1999. Jennifer is a member of both the Indiana and Michigan state bars, and is a past chairperson of the Elder Law section of the Indiana State Bar Association and a past President of National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. She was named a Fellow of the Academy by NAELA in 2019 and has been a member of NAELA’s Council of Advanced Practitioners since 2016.
In 2019, she became a partner at Tuesley Hall Konopa LLP in South Bend, Indiana. She is a frequent author and speaker on a wide variety of topics in elder and special needs law. In addition to her law practice, Jennifer is an adjunct professor in the Elder Law LLM program at Stetson University Law a school and is currently in the process of writing the second edition of Elder Law: Advocacy for the Aging for Thomson Reuters (to be published Fall 2022).