B2 – Are You Afraid of Conservatorships of the Person? Risks, Exposures and Solutions

Brenda Shorkend is a Certified Aging Life Care Manager™/Geriatric Care Manager with over 25 years of experience working with older people and people with special needs and disabilities and their families. She has a background in Rehabilitation Psychology and is a member of the Aging Life Care Association. She has worked in a wide variety of hospital and community settings, including Huntington Hospital’s Senior Care Network. Brenda has broad knowledge of local resources and services. 

Brenda is a strong advocate for her clients. She helps to tailor unique solutions for each individual that maximize their independence and autonomy while ensuring their safety and well-being. She emphasizes the importance of building a team or circle of care that includes family, friends and trusted advisors. 

She is on the Board of JLA Trust, a nonprofit Pooled Special Needs Trust; Chair of the Aging Life Care Association’s Standards Committee, and Chair  of the San Gabriel Valley End of Life Care Coalition.

A former corporate executive, New Wave Home Care founder Sam Gopinathan exchanged his Fortune 500 background for a more gratifying venture — developing a new standard of geriatric care in home care. Sam is a Mechanical Engineer with MBA in Business Strategies.

Sam founded New Wave in the year 2010. Since then, New Wave Home Care has worked very closely with fiduciaries, conservators, care managers and attorneys, handling very conservatorships.  Currently New complex Wave is closing in on 2 million hours of care. and difficult Sam and his team excels in working in a very collaborative manner with other professionals to provide exception al care for the clients and supports conservatorships in depth.

David Kim, Managing Partner of Wright Kim Douglas, is an experienced litigator with an extensive business and real estate background, and handles exclusively probate and trust matters, both litigated and non-litigated.  He has successfully conducted several notable trials involving probate and trust disputes on behalf of Private Professional Fiduciaries.  Mr. Kim also counsels’ clients in all phases of conservatorships and trust administration.  

Additionally, Mr. Kim serves as Court Appointed Counsel in highly contested conservatorships and Guardian ad litem in trust matters.

Mr. Kim’s fiduciary duties also extend to several non-profit boards.  He is on the Board at the YMCA of the Foothills (Former Chairman), and former President at the National Advocates Top 100 Lawyers, where he remains as an Executive Committee member and on the Board at Dignity Health, Glendale Memorial Hospital.  

He has been named a Super Lawyer in Trust and Estate Litigation for 4 consecutive years of 2020-2023, among several other awards in the areas of Trust and Estate Litigation.  His firm Wright Kim Douglas is named consistently as “Best Law Firm” for 2017-2023, in the practice areas of Trust and Estate Litigation and Commercial Litigation.

Judge Ana Maria Luna obtained her undergraduate degrees in Biological Sciences and Spanish from the University of California, Irvine in 1981.  She graduated from the University of Southern California Gould Law School in 1984.  Judge Luna began practice as a family law attorney in the Southeast area of Los Angeles County from 1984 to 1989.  In 1990, she transitioned from family law to criminal defense work when she was hired by the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office.  She began her judicial career in October 1992 when selected by the Southeast District Municipal Court judges to serve as a court Commissioner.  In 1994, she ran for and won an open seat to that bench. She was the first Latina to serve in that municipal court district.  She became a Superior Court judge through unification in 2000.  Judge Luna has worked extensively with drug treatment issues in the criminal justice system. She was instrumental in the creation of a Drug Court program that served the Southeast District of the Los Angeles Superior Court. In 2000, she was chosen by the Board of Supervisors to chair the Prop. 36 Steering Committee for Los Angeles County in response to a voter initiative requiring treatment rather than incarceration as means to treat substance abusing defendants.  Judge Luna served as an associate with the VERA Institute and has advised other states as to the development of collaborative drug treatment programs.  She has served as faculty at the Judicial College (California) and at the National Judicial College (Reno).  She is a past president of the Latino Judges of California, and a past vice-president of the California Judges Association.  She served on the state Judicial Council from 1998 to 2001.  Judge Luna was assigned to a family law courtroom from 2014 to April 2020 where she heard child custody, support and financial issues in marital dissolution and parentage actions.  In April 2020, Judge Luna was reassigned to the Probate Division where she presided over a busy calendar court managing estate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship cases.  As of March 2022, she has been handling the long cause probate calendar.   Judge Luna has presented to the LA County Bar Association regarding minor’s counsel training (Family) and  litigating special immigrant juvenile findings (Family and Probate) as well as to the Southeast District Bar Association on cross-over issues in probate and family law.  Judge Luna likes to knit, read and walk/hike whenever she has the opportunity to do so.