Nina A. Kohn
Associate Professor of Law
College of Law
Syracuse University
Biography:
A.B., Princeton University
J.D., Harvard Law School
Professor Kohn earned her A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. She clerked for the Honorable 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.
Professor Kohn’s scholarship focuses on elder law and, in particular, the civil rights of senior citizens. Her most recent articles have addressed such important issues as financial exploitation of the elderly, voting by citizens with cognitive impairment, and health care decision-making in the absence of advance directives. Professor Kohn teaches elder law, an interdisciplinary gerontology class, and torts. In addition to her responsibilities at the College of Law, Professor Kohn is currently a faculty affiliate with the Syracuse University Gerontology Center, Co-Chair of the Elder Rights Committee of the American Bar Association, a Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law Studies, and Chair of the Aging and the Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools.
Publications:
Nina A. Kohn & Edward D. Spurgeon, Elder Law Teaching and Scholarship: An Empirical Analysis of an Evolving Field, Journal of Legal Education (forthcoming 2010).
Nina A. Kohn, Outliving Civil Rights, 86 Washington University Law Review 1053 (2009).
Nina A. Kohn & Jeremy A. Blumenthal, Designating Health Care Decision-Makers for Patients Without Advance Directives: A Psychological Critique, 42 Georgia Law Review 979 (2008).
Nina A. Kohn, Cognitive Impairment and the Right to Vote: Rethinking the Meaning of Accessible Elections, 1 Canadian Elder Law Journal 28 (2008) (invited article).
Nina A. Kohn, Preserving Voting Rights in Long-Term Care Institutions: Facilitating Resident Voting While Maintaining Election Integrity, 38 McGeorge Law Review 825 (2007) (symposium article).
Nina A. Kohn, Elder Empowerment as a Strategy for Curbing the Hidden Abuses of Durable Powers of Attorney, 59 Rutgers Law Review 1 (2006).
Nina A. Kohn, Cambridge Law School for Women: The Evolution and Legacy of the Nation’s First Graduate Law School Exclusively for Women, 12 Michigan Journal of Gender & Law 119 (2005).
Nina A. Kohn, Second Childhood: What Child Protection Systems Can Teach Elder Protection Systems, 14 Stanford Law & Policy Review 175 (2003).
Scholarly Presentations:
Recent Presentations:
"Legal Capacity & the Right to Vote." Presentation at the Bi-Annual Meeting of the International Academy for Law and Mental Health, New York, NY (July 2009).
"Beyond Medicare: Reconsidering Age-Based Social Policy." Presentation at the 32nd Annual Health Law Professors Conference, Cleveland, OH (June 2009).
"Neglect & Abuse of Elders: Caregiver, Juror, & Expert." Discussant, American Law Psychology Association, San Antonio, TX (March 2009).
Portia Law School 1908-1938: Its Place in History," Panel Discussion, New England School of Law, Boston, MA (February 2009).
"A Rights Based Approach to Elder Law," Presentation at the World Study Group on Elder Law, Vancouver, Canada (November 2008).
"The Interaction Between the Guardianship System and the Right to Vote," Panel Moderator and Speaker, Canadian Conference on Elder law, Vancouver, Canada (November 2008).
"Making Voting Accessible to Older Adults," Panel Moderator and Speaker, Canadian Conference on Elder Law, Vancouver, Canada (November 2008).
"Outliving Civil Rights: A Constitutional Critique of Elder Protectionism," Cumberland School of Law Works in Progress Series, Birmingham, AL (September 2008).
“Designating Health Care Decision-Makers for Patients Without Advance Directives: A Psychological Critique.” Presentation at the 31th Annual Health Law Professors Conference, Philadelphia, PA (June 2008).
“Democracy, Dementia, and Dignity: Implications of Voting by Cognitively Impaired Citizens.” Presentation at Annual Meeting of the Law & Society Association, Montreal, Canada (May 2008).
“Designating Health Care Decision-Makers for Patients Without Advance Directives.” Presentation at the American Law-Psychology Society Conference, Jacksonville, FL (March 2008).
“Outliving Civil Rights?” Lubin Lecture, New York, NY (December 2007).
“Preserving Voting Rights of Elderly and Cognitively Impaired Citizens.”
Presentation at the World Study Group on Elder Law, Vancouver, Canada (November 2007).
“Don’t Tell Mama, But I Just Sold Her House: Durable Power of Attorney Abuse and a New Strategy to Combat It.” Presentation at the Canadian Conference on Elder Law, Vancouver, Canada (November 2007).
“Who Can, Should or Would Vote.” Panel presentation at the National Aging and Law Conference, Washington DC (October 2007).
“Voting in Long-Term Care Institutions: Fundamental Rights in the Face of Dementia.” Presentation at the 30th Annual Health Law Professors Conference, Boston, MA (June 2007).
“Political Engagement of Frail and Institutionalized Elders: The Implications of Dementia on the Right to Vote.” Presentation at the Conference on Aging and Disability, sponsored by the Syracuse University Gerontology Center, Syracuse, NY (May 2007).
“Preserving Voting Rights in Long-Term Care Institutions: Facilitating Resident Voting While Maintaining Election Integrity.” Paper presented at Voting as People Age: Implications of Cognitive Impairment, a symposium of invited experts sponsored by the American Bar Association, the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging, and McGeorge Law School, Sacramento, CA (March 2007).
“Voting Rights of Long-Term Care Residents: Providing Access and Maintaining Dignity in the Face of Dementia.” Faculty talk at the Syracuse University Gerontology Center, Syracuse, NY (March 2007).
“Elder Empowerment as a Strategy for Curbing the Hidden Abuses of Durable Powers of Attorney.” Poster presentation at the American Association of Law Schools Annual Conference, Washington, DC (Jan. 2007).
“An Overview of Assisted Living Regulation.” Presentation as part of a panel on consumer expectations in assisted living at the National Citizens’ Coalition on Nursing Home Reform Conference, Washington, DC (October 2006).
Moderator and Speaker, Panel on model guardianship courts, Impact of Problem Solving Courts Conference, organized by the Family Law and Social Policy Center of the Syracuse University College of Law, Syracuse, NY (October 2006).
Moderator, Panel on end-of-life issues, 29th Annual Health Law Teachers Conference, Baltimore, MD (June 2006).
“Assisted Living Regulation and the Washington State Model.” Presentation as part of a panel on assisted living issues at the National Aging and Law Conference, Washington, DC (April 2006).
"Cambridge Law School for Women.” Paper presented at the American Society for Law, Culture and Humanities’ annual conference, Syracuse, NY (March 2006).