Internship in Conservatorship Reform

Britney Spears is free.  Thousands of other California conservatees are still trapped.  You can help California conservatees while learning things that aren’t taught in law school or medical school. 

“I went from having minimal knowledge about conservatorship and reversible causes of dementia to creating projects on both!  It was very fun and exciting to be in charge of my own research.  I felt like a detective, and the process of completing each project was overall very enjoyable.  I was not expecting to be able to work on my own projects right away.   The CRP internship greatly exceeded my expectations.  I recommend CRP internships because they offer opportunities for students to do fulfilling work that will actually make a difference!” — R.F.  Princeton Class of 2027

The Conservatorship Reform Project (CRP) teaches people how to avoid conservatorship and advocates for the interests of elders and people with disabilities who have lost their property and civil rights in California’s conservatorship system. 

For context, when a court decides an adult cannot handle their own affairs, the court can strip that person of virtually all their rights and assign those rights to another person. The person who has been stripped of their rights is called a “conservatee” in California (and a “ward” in other states). The person that the conservatee’s rights are assigned to is called a “conservator” in California (and a “guardian” in other states). Courts assign one person’s rights to another person through conservatorships in California and guardianships in other states.  Court oversight of conservatorships and guardianships is often minimal and cursory.

Conservators have almost absolute power over their conservatees. Conservators decide what medical treatment conservatees do or don’t get (e.g. Britney Spear’s unwanted IUD); where conservatees live; what conservatees eat; how much of the money the conservatees themselves earned they can spend; what clothing is or isn’t purchased for conservatees and who cares for or supervises conservatees. 

Media coverage of the Britney Spears conservatorship, the feature film “I Care A Lot,” and the New Yorker article “How the Elderly Lose Their Rights" accurately illustrate just how wrong things sometimes go in guardianships and conservatorships. 

A significant number of conservatorship abuse perpetrators in California are the conservators appointed by the court to protect vulnerable elders and people with disabilities in the first place.  Many private, for-profit professional fiduciaries have almost no training, get almost no supervision and game the system to their own financial advantage.  Fatal neglect, fatal overmedication, kidnapping, the gambling away of a conservatee’s entire life savings and imprisonment in locked nursing homes with family and friends unlawfully banned from visiting are all too often fact, not fiction. 

CRP offers internships in conservatorship reform during the fall, winter, spring and summer.

Although CRP does not have funds to pay interns, many schools offer academic credit and/or grants to students doing unpaid internships with non-profit organizations like CRP.    Summer 2024 interns were paid $600 per week of grant funding.

Previous interns described their CRP internships as: thought-provoking, exciting, interesting, educational, rewarding and enjoyable.  Previous CRP interns described what they learned as: shocking, alarming and eye-opening.  Previous interns described Selene (CRP’s Founder who supervises and works directly with interns) as: passionate, engaging, charismatic, empathic, authentic, personable, reliable, flexible, fun.

Internship Responsibilities could include one or more of the following projects:

• Summarizing published legal decisions
• Determining what, if anything, “nourishing” means in the context of federal law requiring Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) to provide “nourishing” food to SNF residents
• Drafting and promoting proposed conservatorship reform legislation
• Legal research
• Researching and writing sections of the forthcoming: “Conservatorship Survival Guide”
• Making California Public Records Act requests, Judicial Administrative Record Act requests and Freedom of Information Act requests
• Identifying and tracking down copies of documents that can be filed in California and Federal Courts to educate judges about the severity and frequency of conservatorship abuse
• Drafting legal petitions to get agencies tasked with protecting elders and people with disabilities from abuse to change their policies so that they actually do protect elders and people with disabilities
• Reaching out to attorneys and law firms to gauge their interest in conservatorship reform and invite them to events CRP organizes
• Primary document archive research in San Francisco and/or San Mateo Counties at locations accessible by public transportation and various other cities throughout the US (for on-site interns)
•  

Job Qualifications: 

• Reliable Internet Access
• Private Space in which no one can see your screen or hear what you are saying (to participate in team meetings)
• Ideally unlimited long distance calling
• Good, preferably great spoken and written English
• Ability to use screens for significant parts of the day.
• Attention to detail (for some projects)
• Memory for detail (for some projects)
• Interest in law, medicine, advocacy, social justice, the power of story, financial archaeology
• Enthusiasm for contributing as part of a team

If you are interested, please send a resume, a few words about why we’d be fools not to have you, and writing sample that shows how clearly you write to conservatorshipreform@lmi.net   Since the purpose of the writing sample is to demonstrate how clearly you write, it’s not impossible but it is unlikely that a philosophy paper would be the best demonstration of how clearly you write.  You don't have to send a fancy cover letter but please let us know how many hours per week during what date range you are interested in interning with CRP and what your other responsibilities will be during that time (e.g. another internship, a paying job, family responsibilities, academic classes, etc.)