Carolyn Reinach Wolf | Abrams Fensterman, LLP

Carolyn Reinach Wolf is an Executive Partner in the law firm of Abrams Fensterman, LLP and Director of the Firm’s Mental Health Law practice. She is the only attorney in the country with a family-focused mental healthcare practice. Supported by a team of expert clinicians, she specializes in guiding families through the complex landscape of legal issues that impact loved ones with serious mental illness, overall mental health issues, and/or substance abuse issues.

She also represents institutions, such as major hospital systems, community hospitals, and outpatient programs, consulting on matters including capacity, mental hygiene law, end of life decision making, development and ongoing functioning of ethics committees and advance directives. She also represents mental health and healthcare professionals, and higher educational institutions.

Ms. Wolf’s expertise encompasses mental hygiene law, including retention and treatment over objection psychiatric cases; mental health warrants; capacity determinations; informed consent and medical treatment cases; confidentiality and release of records matters; interaction with law enforcement in family matters, health care facilities and institutions of higher education; Kendra’s Law applications (Assisted Outpatient Treatment Orders); Article 81 and 17-A guardianship proceedings; civil and criminal litigation and negotiation specific to mental health issues; consultation and advice in navigating the mental health and health care systems, and legal interventions in the inpatient and outpatient treatment settings as well as mental health issues in the higher education setting.

Ms. Wolf is a Past President of the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (NaBITA), a membership association serving more than 1,500 professionals in schools, colleges and workplaces whose role is to support individuals in need of mental health intervention and to minimize the potential for school and workplace violence. She is also a frequently invited speaker and consultant to healthcare and mental health organizations, as well as institutions of higher education. She also provides mental health legal advice to administrators, and professional associations throughout the country regarding mental health law issues and many of the above-mentioned topics. She has been selected to the New York Super Lawyers list since 2013 and the Best Lawyers of America since 2018. Ms. Wolf has also been selected as an honoree of the City and State of New York’s  2024 Above & Beyond Women.

Ms. Wolf holds a J.D. from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, an M.S. in Health Services Administration from the Harvard School of Public Health and an M.B.A. in Management from the Hofstra University School of Business. She is admitted to practice in New York State and Federal Courts as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, Ms. Wolf is an adjunct professor at Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, teaching “Law and Psychiatry.” Prior to practicing law, Ms. Wolf was a hospital administrator and Director of Hospital Risk Management at City Hospital Center at Elmhurst in New York, from 1980 until 1984.

I. Prevalence and types of substance abuse issues among lawyers | 12:00pm – 12:15pm

II. Ethical concerns and professional responsibilities related to substance abuse | 12:15pm – 12:30pm

III. The impact of substance abuse on legal practice and client relationships | 12:30pm – 12:45pm

IV. Strategies for identifying, addressing, and mitigating substance abuse in the legal profession | 12:45pm – 1:00pm