Professor Edward D. Spurgeon

Professor Edward D. “Ned” Spurgeon, an active national advocate, scholar and teacher on Elder law issues, founded The Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging and serves as the Executive Director. He also serves on the Board of Directors, and is past president, of the National Senior Citizens Law Center, as a special advisor to the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging (formerly the Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly) and was co-founder of the Utah Legal Services Senior Lawyer Volunteer Project. He is also a member of the American Bar Foundation (Utah Chapter).

Since 1980, Professor Spurgeon has been a legal educator, with faculty appointments as Professor of Law at the University of Utah College of Law (1980-1993, 2002-present) and the University of Georgia School of Law (1993-2003) and as visiting Professor of Law at New York University, Stanford University and McGeorge School of Law, where he is now Distinguished Professor of Law and the first holder of the Gordon D. Schaber Chair in Health Law and Policy. He also was the Dean of the law schools at both the University of Utah (1983-1990) and the University of Georgia (1993-1998). His teaching and writing in recent years have focused on law, public policy and aging; taxation of gifts, estates and trusts; and estate planning.

Spurgeon’s recent scholarship includes the book, Federal Taxation of Trusts, Grantors and Beneficiaries (with Professor John Peschel, 3d ed., 1997; supplements 1998-2006). Selected articles include “Lawyers Acting as Guardians: Policy and Ethical Considerations” in XXXI Stetson Law Review No. 3 2002 (with Ciccarello) “Integrating Tax and Elder Law into Elder Law and Tax Courses” XXX in Stetson University Law Review No. 4 2001 (with Mustard), “How Increased Respect for the Autonomy of Older People Has Changed the Legal Landscape: An Overview” in the Intermountain Aging Review (Fall/Winter 2000-01), and “Fostering Elder Rights Through Innovative Collaborations: A Look at the Partnerships in Law and Aging Program” in the Journal of Poverty Law and Policy (Sept.-Oct. 2000).

Spurgeon organized a national multidisciplinary conference on the legal and ethical aspects of dementia at the University of Georgia in December 2000; papers from the path-setting conference were published in 35 Georgia Law Review No. 2 (2001) for which he co-authored the foreward. Spurgeon has also helped organize similar national conferences: one at Stetson University on guardianship law (2001); and a second at Fordham University on legal ethics (1993).

Spurgeon practiced law for 16 years, including 12 years as an associate and a partner with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker in Los Angeles, before beginning his career in legal education.

Spurgeon earned his undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University, his law degree from Stanford University Law School, and a Master of Laws degree from New York University Law School.