University of Utah

Mary Jane Ciccarello is the Self-Help Center Director with the Utah State Courts.  She was an elder law attorney in private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah, for several years and provided Older Americans Act Title III legal services to older persons in Summit and Wasatch Counties in northern Utah.  She also served previously as the Legal Services Developer for the Utah State Division of Aging and Adult Services, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake and Utah Legal Services, and the dean of students at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law where she now teaches elder law as an adjunct professor.  A Fellow with the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging since 2001, she has served as the foundation’s assistant director since 2007.

Mary Jane received her B.A. magna cum laude in Italian from Barnard College (1975), M.A. (1976) and M.Phil. (1978) in Italian from Columbia University, and J.D. from the University of Utah College of Law (1993).  The Utah State Bar named her the distinguished pro bono lawyer of 1997 and she was awarded the 2008 Pete Suazo Social Justice Award for individual advocacy by the University of Utah Graduate School of Social Work.  She served as the chair of the Needs of the Elderly Committee of the Utah State Bar (2002-2004) and as president of the board of Jewish Family Service of Salt Lake (2003-2005) where she now serves as a board member.  She currently serves on the Utah State Courts Standing Committee on Resources for Self-Represented Parties and the Utah State Courts Ad Hoc Committee on Probate. She is a trustee of UJET, the Utah Jewish Community Endowment Trust, a member of the Utah State Bar, and a member of the Utah Aging Alliance.

Mary Jane writes and lectures regularly on law and aging issues and among her publications are “Recent Legal Trends Affecting Your Older Patients” in a special September 2007 geriatrics issue of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology;  “Aging Agencies:  Federal Level” in The Encyclopedia of Elder Care, 2^nd edition; and, together with Professor Edward D. Spurgeon, “The Lawyer in Other Fiduciary Roles: Policy and Ethical Considerations” in a special March 1994 issue of the Fordham Law Review on Ethical Issues in Representing Older Clients, and “The Lawyer as Guardian: Policy and Ethical Considerations” in a special Spring 2002 issue of the Stetson Law Review on Wingspan-The Second National Guardianship Conference.

Mary Jane is married to Morris Rosenzweig, composer and professor of music at the University of Utah.  They have two sons, Jacob and Max, in graduate school and college.