Vicki Gotkin

Ms. Gotkin’s career has spanned the gamut of private, governmental, and higher education law practice, as well as teaching. 

Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law awarded Ms. Gotkin her Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, and the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management awarded her a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with a major in Accounting, cum laude. 

Ms. Gotkin was admitted to practice by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1981 and has remained a member in good standing since that time. She also is admitted to the District Court for the District of Arizona, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Gotkin spent several years in private practice before becoming a staff Bar Counsel at the State Bar of Arizona, where she prosecuted ethical complaints against attorneys, revised the rules related to fee arbitration, and engaged in ethics trainings in Arizona and beyond.  She continued her work in public service at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, where she practiced criminal appellate litigation, civil litigation, and represented the Arizona State Hospital and Arizona's Department of Health Services.  Ms. Gotkin joined the Office of the General Counsel at the University of Arizona in 1995, from which she retired in 2014 to open her private practice of law.

During her nearly 20-year career at the University of Arizona, Ms. Gotkin practiced employment/personnel, health, and student affairs' law, authored numerous University policies, chaired a team of individuals that revised the entire appointed personnel policy manual, drafted statutes mandating criminal background checks and fingerprint clearance cards for health sciences students and residents, trained administrators, faculty, students, medical residents, and members of the community, and was a contributing author on a popular pharmacy college textbook.  She was a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, for which she was an invited speaker on a number of occasions, and was a member of the State Bar's Sections on Employment and Labor Law. 

Since beginning her private practice, Ms. Gotkin joined the State Bar's sections on Elder Law, Mental Health, and Special Needs Planning.  Ms. Gotkin serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Southern Arizona Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI-SA), and is a member of the Southern Arizona Estate Planning Council.  Ms. Gotkin also is a member of WealthCounsel, a national association of estate planning attorneys, as well as the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and its Arizona affiliate.  In July 2015, Ms. Gotkin joined ElderCounsel to enhance the services she will provide to her elder law, Veterans, and special needs clients.  Ms. Gotkin is also a member of the Arizona Gerontological Nursing Association, for which she participated on the planning committee to present its first conference on Transitions of Care in May 2015.  She holds a Lecturer title in the University of Arizona's College of Medicine and teaches in the College of Science's Department of Psychology.  She also provides continuing education to administrators and others at the University of Arizona regarding personnel management and leadership.

Ms. Gotkin's private practice focuses on employment, health, mental health, and disability law, elder law, guardianships, conservatorships, and special needs planning, professional licensing matters, estate planning, professional educational activities, higher education law, and University-level teaching.