University of St. Thomas

J.D., Stanford Law School
B.A., Swarthmore College

Jennifer L. Wright was born in Redwood City, California, but moved to the Twin Cities when she was only a few months old. After living in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Kansas, England and New Hampshire, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with High Honors from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in political science and philosophy. She graduated with Distinction from Stanford Law School, where she was one of the student founders of the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, a low income legal services program and the site of Stanford’s first clinical law program.

After law school, Wright worked as an affiliated attorney with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, founding and directing the Immigration Amnesty Project. She then worked for ten years as a staff attorney for Oregon Legal Services, specializing in elder law. She was the statewide elder law resource for Oregon Legal Services and presented many continuing legal education seminars on issues such as guardianship law, nursing home law, Medicaid and Medicare, advanced directives and end-of-life decision making, and ethics. During her time with Oregon Legal Services, Wright authored the Oregon Elder Abuse Prevention Act.

Wright joined the faculty of Willamette University College of Law in 1998, where she directed the Clinical Law Program and taught the Civil Practice Clinic, the Externship Program, and Professional Responsibility. Wright chaired the Elder Law section of the Oregon State Bar and was active in legislation and litigation to protect seniors from draconian budget cuts in that state. Wright founded the Willamette Faculty Pro Bono Program and co-founded the Willamette Pro Bono Honors Program, to assist and recognize law student involvement in pro bono activities. As a member of the Marion County Bar Association Pro Bono Committee, Wright co-founded the Mentor-Match Program, a pro bono program matching law students with pro bono attorneys to serve the needs of indigent clients. In 2002, she was awarded the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year Award by the Willamette University Public Interest Law Project. In 2003, she received the Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award from the Marion County Bar Association.

Wright directs the Elder Law Practice Group at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where she teaches and supervises law students who are aiding elderly clients in long-term care and financial abuse situations. Wright is also a member of the Governing Council of the Elder Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association, a section delegate to the MSBA Assembly, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Medica Skyway Senior Center.

Representative Scholarship

Teaching Client-Specific Approaches to Interviewing and Counseling: Interviewing and Counseling the Elderly, AALS Annual Conference (January, 2005) (transcript to be published soon in Thomas Cooley Law Journal).

Therapeutic Jurisprudence in an Interprofessional Practice at the University of St. Thomas Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services, 17 St. Thomas (Florida) Law Review 501 (2005).

Protecting Who from What, and Why, and How: A Proposal for an Integrative Approach to Adult Protective Proceedings, 12 The Elder Law Journal 53 (2004).

Medicaid Discrimination in Long-Term Care, Elder Law Newsletter (summer, 2002).

Issues in Elder Law – A Legislative Update, Oregon State Bar Association publication (2001).

Unconstitutional or Impossible: The Irreconcilable Gap Between Managed Care and Due Process in Medicaid and Medicare, 17 Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy 135 (2000).

Stumbling Blocks and Pitfalls: Spotting, Avoiding and Dealing with Ethical Problems, Oregon State Bar Association publication (2000).

Living With Long-Term Care: What Issues Will Your Clients Face?, in Elder Law, Oregon State Bar Association treatise (2000).

Due Process Issues in Publicly Financed Managed Care, Willamette University College of Law publication (1998).

Contested Cases in Guardianships and Conservatorships, Oregon Law Institute publication (1999). Previous versions of this publication: Oregon Law Institute (1997), Oregon Law Institute (1995), Oregon State Bar Association (1994).

Ethical Issues in Elder Law, with Mark Williams, Half Moon Seminars publication (1996).

Issues in Nursing Home Law, Half Moon Seminars publication (1996).

Courses Taught

Civil Clinic: Elder Law Practice Group
Civil Clinic: Advanced Elder Law Practice Group

Mailing Address
MSL 400
1000 LaSalle Avenue
Minneapolis , MN 55403-2015