2010 Mandatory/Refresher Probate Volunteeer Panel Attorney Training Program

James E. Spar, M.D. is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine in 1972, completed residency training in Psychiatry at UCLA in 1977, completed a Fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry at UCLA in 1978, and then joined the full-time faculty at UCLA, where he has remained to the present. He was the first Director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, and is now the Director of the psychiatry residency training program there. He has devoted his professional effort to clinical program administration, teaching and research in the evaluation and treatment of elderly patients with mental illness. He is frequently called upon to evaluate the mental competency of patients to consent to hospitalization, psychotropic medication administration, and electroconvulsive therapy, and he is also regularly engaged in evaluation (contemporaneous and retrospective) of individuals' competencies for various legal purposes, such as the execution of wills, trusts, gifts and contracts. He has published three books and multiple scholarly articles and chapters on various topics in clinical geriatric psychiatry, and has also published articles and chapters on competency and susceptibility to undue influence. He was a major contributor in the drafting of several California statutes (Calif. Probate Code sections 6100.5 re: persons not competent to make a will: and sections 810 -813, and Civil Code Sec. 3gb) related to competency determination.

Dominique Sanz-David is a staff attorney with Bet Tzedek Legal Services' Family Caregiver Project and is currently Bet Tzedek's Social Justice Fellow. She previously worked with the San Francisco Superior Court for five years, first as a three-year clerk to the Honorable James Warren in the court's Law &Motion Department, and later at the court's ACCESS Center, helping self-represented litigants with civil and probate actions. Dominique earned her degrees from Pomona College and UC Hastings College of the Law.

Susan Jabkowski is an associate at the law firm of Hinojosa and Wallet in Los Angeles. Susan has practiced law since 1975 and specializes in probate, conservatorship and guardianship law. She received her B.A. from UCLA (1972) and her law degree from Southwestern Law School. She serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Trusts & Estates Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. She has also served as a member of the Executive Committee and as Chairperson of the Trusts & Estates Section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association. She has lectured on conservatorships and probate for CEB and local bar associations and has been on the probate volunteer panel for more than 20 years.

Susan T. House is a partner with the law firm of Hahn & Hahn, LLP, in Pasadena, California, and is a graduate of Wellesley College (A.B., 1971) and UCLA (J.D., 1975). She is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, for which she has served on the Board of Regents and as the California State Chair. She served for 11 years on the Executive Committee of the Trusts & Estates Section of the State Bar of California, of which she was Chair in 1998-1999. Ms. House co-authored California Conservatorships and Guardianships (and its precursor) for CEB, has written a number of chapters on ethics in various CEB trusts and estates publications and is the Co-Editor, with Bruce S. Ross, of the first and second editions of A Guide to the California Rules of Professional Conduct for Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Counsel, published by the State Bar of California in 1997 and 2008. She has served on the Planning Committee for the USC Institute on Federal Tax since 1994 and is currently Co-Chair of the UCLA-CEB Advanced Estate Planning Institute. In 2009, Ms. House received the Arthur K. Marshall Award from the Trusts & Estates Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Susan J. Cooley received her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her law degree from Southwestern. She is a partner in the law firm of Oldman, Cooley, Sallus, Gold, Birnberg & Coleman, LLP, where her practice is composed of conservatorship, guardianship and trusts and estates administration and litigation matters and has written frequently on related topics. She is a former chair of the Trusts &Estates Section of LACBA and has lectured for LACBA, CEB and the State Bar of California.

Patricia V. Doyle received her undergraduate degree from Brown University in 1984 and her law degree from Loyola Law School in 1994. She practiced bankruptcy and civil litigation at the law firm of McKinley and Capeloto in Pasadena for two years. She opened her own practice in 1997, focusing on estate planning, probate, bankruptcy, civil litigation and immigration matters. In 2001, she returned to McKinley and Capeloto. Since 2002, Ms. Doyle has been a Probate Attorney for the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Sandra R. Riley is the Supervising Probate Attorney of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Before joining the Court in 1988 as a Probate Attorney, she was in private practice, first at a probate and estate planning law firm, later at Trust Services of America. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of La Verne. She serves on several court committees and has lectured for CEB, the State Bar of California, LACBA, Professional Fiduciary Association of California (PFAC), and numerous local bar associations.

Hon. Robert Wada is a Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner. He is currently assigned the Probate Calendar in the Southeast District. Prior to becoming a Commissioner, he was a Probate Attorney for the Los Angeles Superior Court, from July, 1997 to September, 2008. Prior to his employment with the Court, he was in private practice, which was focused primarily on estate planning and probate matters. He received his undergraduate degree from UCLA and his law degree from Western State University.

Hon. Reva G. Goetz has been a Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court since February, 2010. Prior to her appointment, she served as a Commissioner for nine years. She sits in Department 9, one of three Probate Departments in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Her calendar consists of conservatorships, guardianships, trust and estate matters. Previously, she sat in a Family Law assignment for nearly six years. Judge Goetz served as a Deputy District Attorney from 1984 to 1991. Prior to practicing law, Judge Goetz worked as a Financial Analyst and Accountant. She earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her law degree from Whittier law School, where she was an editor of the Law Review.

Hon. Mitchell L. Beckloff is the Supervising Judge of the Probate Departments of the Los Angeles Superior Court. He earned his undergraduate degree at UCLA in 1983 and his law degree, magna cum laude, at Loyola law School in 1989. Judge Beckloff ranked second in a class of 371 at Loyola, where he earned nine American Jurisprudence awards and served as an editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review.

Judge Beckloff began his legal career at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro's San Francisco office. In 1992, he relocated to Los Angeles and worked at Auxiliary legal Services, where he represented Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services. In 1994, he founded the law firm of Groman & Beckloff, specializing in child custody litigation and civil writs and appeals.

In 1999, Judge Beckloff became a Superior Court Referee. From 2001 until 2007, he served as a Commissioner of the Los Angeles Superior Court, working in its Family law and Probate Departments. In May, 2007, he was assigned to Department 5 in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. He was appointed as a Judge in June, 2007 and was named Supervising Judge of the Probate Departments in 2009.

Jonathan L. Rosenbloom is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University School of Law, where he was Articles Editor of the Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business. His practice is composed of estate planning and administration, conservatorship, real estate and business matters. Jonathan is the Chair of the Trusts &Estates Section of LACBA and former Chair of LACBA's Elder Law Committee. He has lectured for CEB, LACBA and the Beverly Hills Bar Association and is a contributing author for CEB's Decedent Estate Practice treatise. Jonathan has served as a PVP attorney since 1998 and has coordinated continuing education and training programs for PVP attorneys since 2003.

Samuel D. Ingham III has a private practice in Beverly Hills limited to conservatorship, guardianship, trust and probate matters. Mr. Ingham received his B.A. in Latin (summa cum laude) in 1972 from UC Irvine and his J.D. in 1975 from UCLA. He contributed the chapters entitled "Court-Appointed Counsel: An Overview" and "Court-Approved Substitutes For Probate Conservatorships" to CEB's California Conservatorships.

Mr. Ingham is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California and has served on the Executive Committees of LACBA's Sections on Trust & Estates and Natural Resources Law. He serves frequently as a PVP attorney and on the Probate Mediation Panel and acts as a court appointed expert, referee or master in litigated cases.