Clark Hill Attorney MacKenzie Hyde to Speak at ISBA’s Elder Law Issues for Everyone: Your Aging Clients, Their Parents, and You

CHICAGO, IL

– MacKenzie Hyde, an attorney in Clark Hill PLC’s Chicago office, will be speaking at the Illinois State Bar Association’s upcoming event,

Elder Law Issues for Everyone: Your Aging Clients, Their Parents, and You

. The event, scheduled for Thursday, April 7, 2011, aims to increase understanding of the elder law landscape and make it easier for attendees to advise clients.

Hyde will be co-presenting

Capacity & Diminished Capacity

, offering an analysis of guardianships and guardianship avoidance in diminished capacity cases.

For more information, or to register for the event, go to www.isba.com.

MacKenzie A. Hyde

is an associate attorney in the Litigation Practice Group of Clark Hill’s Chicago office. Hyde concentrates in contested guardianships and estates, as well as fiduciary litigation and estate administration. Hyde represent individuals, medical institutions and financial institutions in all areas of her practice.

Hyde is the current Vice Chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Elder Law Committee. Hyde also serves as a consultant to the Institute on Aging and Intergenerational Study and Practice at Loyola University Chicago.

In 2010, Hyde, along with Clark Hill attorney Ray Koenig, published an article in Chicago’s

Windy City Times

, entitled

Couples Planning and the New Civil-Union Act

. The article outlines the default rights regarding health care, disability, and death that couples will enjoy if they enter into a civil union under the new Act. During the Fall 2010 semester, Hyde served as a teaching assistant for the elder law course “Preserving Independence and Dignity” at John Marshall Law School.

In 2009, Hyde co-authored two probate-related articles with Clark Hill member Ray J. Koenig.

The Impact of the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (HB 1826) on Probate in Illinois

was published in the Chicago Bar Record in September 2009 and

Be Careful What you Wish For: Analyzing the “Five Wishes” Advanced Directive

was published in the Illinois Bar Journal in May 2009. Hyde also contributed to the Guardianship Litigation chapter in the IICLE 2009 Handbook

Litigating Disputed Estates, Trusts, Guardianships, and Charitable Bequests

.

Hyde graduated from Loyola University School of Law where she participated in the Elder Law Clinic. In the clinic Hyde represented petitioners and respondents in guardianship proceedings and also served as Guardian Ad Litem.

Prior to law school Hyde taught elementary school in North Lawndale, a neighborhood on Chicago’s westside, through the national teaching program, Teach for America. While teaching, Hyde earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Dominican University.

Hyde is a frequent contributor to Clark Hill’s Estate, Trust, and Guardianship Controversies Blog, where she posts entries about current issues and events relevant to estate, trust, and guardianship litigation.