Three fellowships in law and aging are available for 2019-2020. The online application is available between March 15, 2019 and April 15, 2019. Interested applicants should submit the required online application by April 15, 2019. See our web page on the fellowships and our online application. 

The Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Board of Directors are pleased to announce the recipients of the Center on Law and Aging's 2019 Academic Research Grants. They are:

Patrick Button and Mashfiqur Khan, Do Stronger Employment Discrimination Laws Soften the Blow of Social Security Cuts? Evidence from State Laws and the Social Security Amendments of 1983

Allen Glicksman and Laura Ring, Modeling Pathways to Access of Long Term Care Services and Supports among Limited English Speaking Elders

Kathy Lee and Rebecca Mauldin, Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities among Older Adults in Long-Term Care Facilities

Stacey Wood and Pi-Ju (Marian) Liu, Susceptibility to Mass Marketing Fraud among the Elderly

Click here for more information about the grant recipients and the Academic Research Grant program.

Congratulations to the 2019 grantees!

A new website that addresses senior housing crisis issues is now available at this link: Senior Housing Crisis. The site is the work of Julie Gilgoff, a 2017-18 Borchard Fellow, who worked on alternative approaches to senior housing in the Bay Area in California. The site is a useful, national resource for advocates and anyone interested in exploring creative housing solutions and policies like community living, community land trusts, co-operative housing, and more. 

The National Aging and Law Conference (NALC) is now accepting proposals for the 2019 conference, to be held October 31st–November 1st in Arlington, Virginia.

NALC is the only national conference on law and aging focusing primarily on older adults with the greatest social and economic needs. The presenter-driven conference is led by attorneys and advocates who deliver services to older adults. The planning committee seeks a mixture of proven experts and new voices each year.

The Borchard Center on Law and Aging has been a proud sponsor of the conference for several years.

Workshop proposals are due by March 1st, 2019.

Further information, as well as a workshop proposal template, are available on the ABA COLA website.

Please email with questions or if you have difficulty downloading the workshop proposal form.

Rebecca Vallas, a 2011-12 Borchard Fellow, who now serves as the vice president of the poverty to prosperity program at the Center for American Progress, was quoted in a recent New York Times article. The article addresses the Trump administration's declaration that the war on poverty is largely over while urging work requirements for people who benefit from federal safety net programs. 

Edward D. “Ned” Spurgeon (1939-2021) founded the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging in 1998 and served as Director and later Co-Director until 2018. He remained a Senior Advisor to the Center while continuing as the President and a Director of the Borchard Foundation. He also served on the Board of Directors, and was past president, of the National Senior Citizens Law Center (now Justice in Aging), as a special advisor to the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging (formerly the Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly) and was co-founder of the Utah Legal Services Senior Lawyer Volunteer Project. He was also a member of the American Bar Foundation (Utah Chapter).

Since 1980, Professor Spurgeon was a legal educator, with faculty appointments as Professor of Law at the University of Utah College of Law (1980-1993, 2002-present) and the University of Georgia School of Law (1993-2003) and as visiting Professor of Law at New York University, Stanford University and Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he was from 2007-2010 the first holder of the Gordon D. Schaber Chair in Health Law and Policy. He also was the Dean of the law schools at both the University of Utah (1983-1990) and the University of Georgia (1993-1998). His teaching and writing in recent years focused on law, public policy and aging; taxation of gifts, estates and trusts; and estate planning.

Spurgeon’s recent scholarship includes the book, Federal Taxation of Trusts, Grantors and Beneficiaries (with Professor John Peschel, 3d ed., 1997; supplements 1998-2010). Selected articles include “Lawyers Acting as Guardians: Policy and Ethical Considerations” in XXXI Stetson Law Review No. 3 2002 (with Ciccarello) “Integrating Tax and Elder Law into Elder Law and Tax Courses” XXX in Stetson University Law Review No. 4 2001 (with Mustard), “How Increased Respect for the Autonomy of Older People Has Changed the Legal Landscape: An Overview” in the Intermountain Aging Review (Fall/Winter 2000-01), and “Fostering Elder Rights Through Innovative Collaborations: A Look at the Partnerships in Law and Aging Program” in the Journal of Poverty Law and Policy (Sept.-Oct. 2000).

Spurgeon organized a national multidisciplinary conference on the legal and ethical aspects of dementia at the University of Georgia in December 2000; papers from the path-setting conference were published in 35 Georgia Law Review No. 2 (2001) for which he co-authored the forward. Spurgeon also helped organize similar national conferences: one at Stetson University on guardianship law (2001); and a second at Fordham University on legal ethics (1993).

Spurgeon also was co-organizer with the ABA Commission on Law and Aging of a pathsetting national multidisciplinary conference at Pacific McGeorge School of Law on the topic of Facilitating Voting as People Age: the Impact of Cognitive Impairments, for which he also co-authored the Introduction.

The American Bar Association awarded Spurgeon the John H. Pickering Award of Achievement in 2016 in recognition of his significant contributions to improving justice for all. In 2014, he received the first Impact Award from Justice in Aging (formerly the National Senior Citizens Law Center) along with the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation and the Borchard Center on Law & Aging for leadership that has had a significant impact on the lives of low-income seniors and for support of legal advocacy on their behalf.

Spurgeon practiced law for 15 years, including 12 years as an associate and a partner with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker in Los Angeles, before beginning his career in legal education.

Charles P. Sabatino, J.D., is the Director of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging, in Washington, D.C., where since 1984, he has been responsible for the ABA Commission’s research, project development, consultation, and education in areas of health law, long-term care, guardianship and capacity issues, surrogate decision-making, legal services delivery for the elderly, and professional ethics.  He has written and spoken extensively on capacity issues, surrogate decision-making, and advance care planning, heath care reform, and legal ethics.  Mr. Sabatino is also a part-time adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center where he has taught Law and Aging since 1987.  He is a Fellow and former president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and active in NAELA public policy affairs.  He received his A.B. from Cornell University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the Virginia and D.C. bars.

Examples of his publications related to aging and law issues include:

• Improving Advanced Illness Care: the Evolution of State POLST Programs, with Naomi Karp (an AARP Public Policy Institute report, April 2011)
• “Damage Prevention and Control for Financial Incapacity,” 305(7) JAMA 707 (Feb.16, 2011).
• “A Values Approach to Teaching Elder Law,” 40 Stetson Law Rev. 333 (Fall 2010).
• “The Evolution of Health Care Advance Planning Law and Policy,” 88(2) Milbank Quarterly 211–239 (2010).
• Legal Guide for the Seriously Ill (co-author), National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 2009.
• “Medico-Legal Issues,” a Special Subjects chapter in The Merck Manual (18^th Edition), 2006.
• The American Bar Association Legal Guide for Americans Over 50, co-editor/co-author (NY: Random House, 2006).
•  “National Advance Directives: One Attempt to Scale the Barriers, 1 NAELA Journal 131 (Spring 2005).
•  “Will My Wishes Be Known and Honored?  Policy and Practice Perspectives,” in Improving End-of-Life Care: The Role of Attorneys General, 35-46 (National Association of Attorneys General, 2003). 

Rebecca C. Morgan is the Boston Asset Management Faculty Chair in Elder Law and Director of the Center for Excellence in Elder Law at Stetson University College of Law. Professor Morgan teaches a variety of elder law, health law and skills courses, and oversees the Elder Consumer Protection Project, as well as the Elder Law concentration program for JD students.

Professor Morgan is a successor co-author of Matthew Bender’s Tax, Estate, and Financial Planning for the Elderly and its companion forms book, and a co-author of Representing the Elderly in Florida. She is a Past President of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Past President of the Board of Directors of the National Senior Citizens Law Center, a member of the academic advisory board for the Borchard Center for Law and Aging, a special advisor to the ABA Commission on Law and Aging, an academic fellow of the American College of Trusts & Estates Counsel, the reporter for the Uniform Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act, on the Faculty of the National Judicial College, past chair of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Aging and the Law, past chair of the Florida Bar Elder Law Section, and a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging. She served on the Florida Attorney General’s Task Force on Elder Abuse and the Legislative Guardianship Study Commission. Professor Morgan was the recipient of the 2003 Faculty Award on Professionalism from the Florida Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and was chosen as part of Florida Trend’s Legal Elite for 2004. She has authored a number of articles on a variety of elder law issues and has spoken a number of times on subjects of elder law.

Purpose

The purpose of this program is to award grants to support former Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging fellows in their continuing work in law and aging. Grants support discrete projects or efforts in law and aging but do not provide salary support or any type of ongoing funding for administrative or operational costs of a former fellow's agency.

Eligibility

Any former Borchard fellow who has successfully completed the terms of the fellowship and who is seeking to continue their work and career development in law and aging may apply. Application considerations will include the benefit to the former fellow, the demonstrated need for funding, the relevance of the proposed project to law and aging issues, and whether the fellow has already received a grant through this program in either the same fiscal year or a prior year.

What Grants Might Support

Former fellows are best suited to identify the evolving needs of the communities they serve as well as their own career development needs.

Fellows have used grant funds to participate in national conferences, develop educational materials about housing rights for older adults, and provide a series of law and aging trainings for social workers and other advocates.

When making decisions about funding fellows to attend conferences, priority will be given to those who demonstrate in their proposals how they will be actively involved by, for example, presenting a paper or poster, facilitating a session, serving on a planning committee, or participating in a working group.

Although grant funds cannot be used for general salary, the grant may be used for the cost of time devoted to the project at a reasonable hourly rate. If a portion of the grant will be used for time costs, please provide details about the hourly rate and estimated number of hours.

Some other possible examples of what a grant might support are:

• Fund outreach to a new population in need of a particular type of service
• Develop/update a website or other virtual resource to better serve target groups
• Develop/update/translate educational materials
• Pilot an innovative approach to a long-standing problem
• Support a fellow's attendance of a regional, national or international conference
• Support a fellow's continuing education in law and aging or related areas
• Fund a special meeting or event
• Develop/update training materials
• Research and writing of articles

Grant Amounts

Generally speaking, grants will be in the $500 to $5,000 range. Applications should indicate the amount sought.

Funding to attend conferences or trainings will be paid on a reimbursement basis. Project grants will be paid prior to the start of funded activities.

Application Process

Applications must include:

1. A letter addressing the following questions:

• How much money are you seeking?
• Why are you undertaking this initiative?
• How will you use the grant?
• What work products or outcomes will result from the grant-funded endeavor?
• What is your timeline for completion of the project?

2. A budget for the project (former fellows can view sample budgets in the Resources section of the Fellow login area on the website)

3. An up-to-date CV

The application and any attachments should be sent by email to Mary Jane Ciccarello, Director, at .

Grant recipients must submit a one-page report of their use of the grant within 30 days of completion of the grant project or effort. Reports should be sent by email to .

Application Deadlines

Grant applications are accepted year round.

Questions?

Please contact Mary Jane Ciccarello at

Applications and all supporting documents (transcripts, curriculum vitae, support letters, etc.) must be submitted online.

The online application process for our 2025-2027 Fellowships opens on March 4, 2025, and applications must be submitted by April 1, 2025.

Please note that the initial page that appears when clicking Apply Here below requires the applicant to create an account. The applicant first inputs the name, EIN, and contact information of the applicant's host agency as the Organization. Subsequently, the applicant inputs their own name and required information as the User. Once an account is created, the applicant will be able to log on again and complete the application.

Questions? Contact Mary Jane Ciccarello at .

Apply Here