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Marc
B. Hankin
Position: Founding Attorney. born New Haven,
Connecticut, 1950; admitted to the bar,
1980, California.
Education: San Francisco State University
(B.A., 1976); Loyola
Law School of Los Angeles (J.D.,
1980);
New York University School of Law
(L.L.M. in Taxation, 1982).
Mr. Hankin is an attorney in private
practice in Beverly Hills and has
served as an adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School of Los
Angeles. Mr.
Hankin’s practice
primarily involves [1] conservatorships, [2] controversies
concerning legal capacity, [2] elder abuse, [4] probate, will and
trust litigation, and [5] estate planning including Medi-Cal and tax
planning. His practice also emphasizes catastrophic health care
coverage under [6] Medi-Cal and
related programs.
Mr. Hankin has been recognized by the
Second District Court of Appeal as a recognized
leader in the field of elder law. Mr. Hankin is the father of Welfare and Institutions Code
§14006.2, the
California law that allows spouses to avoid nursing home impoverishment by
dividing community property and gifting the home to the healthier
spouse. This first legislative effort in the nation to protect
families from catastrophic health care impoverishment has become the basis
of much of the new field of Elder Law. The legislation was copied in
many states. A significantly modified version became federal law in
1988, as part of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act
(“MCCA”). Although MCCA preempted much of the field,
Section 14006.2 and its related “Statements of Legislative
Intent” have a continuing impact on court orders in California to prevent spousal
impoverishment.
Mr. Hankin is the conceptual father and
draftsperson of The Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil
Protection Act (EADACPA,
pronounced ee-dak-pah), enacted in 1991. EADACPA enables abuse
victims to sue abusers by requiring the victimizers to pay the
victim’s attorneys’ fees and litigation costs. Before
EADACPA, the victim’s entitlement to damages for pain and suffering
would frequently evaporate when the victim died before the verdict was
announced. Now, EADACPA allows the victim’s estate to sue and
recover damages for the victim’s pain and suffering, thereby
preventing the victimizer from escaping without having to pay for the harm
inflicted. EADACPA also gave the probate conservatorship court the
general jurisdiction to award these damages.
Mr. Hankin is the conceptual father and
principal draftsperson of The Due Process in Competence Determinations Act (DPCDA,
pronounced dip-see-duh), enacted in 1995. DPCDA was co-sponsored by the California
State Bar Association and the California Medical Association. DPCDA
put measurable modern scientific standards into the law for the
determination of who is competent to consent to medical treatment, to make
contracts, trust agreements, gifts, sign wills, marry, and perform other
acts. This legislation is critical for many financial and
physical-neglect elder abuse lawsuits. DPCDA also makes it possible
and practical for medical staff and patients to seek court orders
determining whether or not a patient’s consent to a prospective
treatment is a competent and informed consent.
Mr. Hankin is the conceptual father and
principal draftsperson of California Probate Codes 259 and 2580(b)(13),
which provide for the disinheritance of persons who commit elder abuse, as
well as several proposals currently before the California Legislature. One
proposal before the Legislature would establish a unified California
database tracking elder abuse, from the first report and/or investigation,
through administrative proceedings, criminal prosecutions, civil lawsuits
and conservatorship proceedings.
Another proposal would establish a special Public Guardian program
for the purpose of working with law enforcement to prevent the looting of
the estates of senile elders.
Mr. Hankin’s other legislative achievements include adding
“isolation” to Elder Abuse, a statute allowing a court to
authorize a conservator to sign a will for an incompetent conservatee, and
other laws too numerous to mention. Mr. Hankin worked on the State Bar
Team 4 that helped draft the Durable Power of Attorney Act that was enacted
as Chapter 307 of Statutes of 1994. Mr. Hankin drafted SB
1742, which established emergency procedures for the Public
Guardian and law enforcement to protect victims from financial abuse.
Mr. Hankin is working on the drafting
of legislation to create useful tangible guidelines, which health-care
professionals, family members and the courts could use, in identifying
“undue influence”, a term that appears in many statutes, e.g., Civil Code
§ 1473, Probate Code §§ 1801, 6100.5,
6104, etc.
Mr. Hankin also is working on the drafting
of legislation that would to give the Probate Court the jurisdiction to
annul abusive marriages to victims who are incompetent to marry, and to
reverse transfers of assets to the victimizers); and legislation to codify
the jurisdiction of the Probate Court to appoint an additional attorney for
a proposed conservatee, when the Probate Court has reason to suspect that
the proposed conservatee lacks the capacity to hire the lawyer who is
attempting to represent the proposed conservatee.
Mr. Hankin is an active member of the Los Angeles City and County
Fiduciary Abuse Specialist Team (FAST). He collaborated on the
drafting of a Master Trust as a joint project for the Mental Health
Association and the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill. The
Master Trust organization, the Proxy Parent Services Foundation, attempts
to provide lifetime caregiver services to mentally ill persons. Mr.
Hankin is a former member of the board of directors of the Proxy Parent
Services Foundation.
Mr. Hankin is a former member of the Legislation Committee of the
California Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and a former member of the board
of the directors of the San Fernando Valley’s Organization for the
Needs of the Elderly.
Mr. Hankin is a former member of the Executive Committee of the
California State Bar Association’s Estate Planning, Trust and Probate
Section. He is the past chair of the Section’s Elder Law
Committee. He is also a former member of the Executive
Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Estates and
Trusts Section.
Mr. Hankin has lectured for the California Continuing Education of the
Bar (“CEB”) on such topics as tax law, numerous programs on Elder
Law,
on “Conservatorships, Guardianships and Other Devices for Handling
Incapacity,” on “Durable Powers of Attorney and Other Devices
for Handling Incapacity,” and on “Estate Planning for the Aging
or Incapacitated Client.” He has lectured at the UCLA -
CEB Annual Estate Planning Institute, a Practicing Law Institute program
the California CPA Society’s Annual Estate Planning Conferences, and
at many other programs for CPA's, lawyers, financial planners and health
care professionals. Mr. Hankin is the author of the chapter on
litigating damages and injunctive relief for elders and dependent adults in
the CEB book on Elder Law. Mr. Hankin has lectured for The Rutter
Group on "Elder Law For All Practitioners."
Mr. Hankin received a B.A. in French literature from San Francisco State
University, a J.D. from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, and a post-juris
doctoral L.L.M. degree in Taxation Law from New York University
School
of Law.
PRACTICE AREAS: Elder Law; including: Elder Abuse
Litigation; Conservatorships Law; Estate Planning (Trusts, Wills, Powers of
Attorney), Medi-Cal Planning; Probate. Email: marc@marchankin.com
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