Linda Suzanne Durston

Linda S. Durston, Ph.D., J.D.,  practices estate, special needs and incapacity planning, probate and trust administration, conservatorship and guardianship law, and other aspects of  Elder Law.  She has a strong background in public benefits administration.

Ms. Durston is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, the Berkeley-Albany Bar Association, and East Bay Trusts & Estates Lawyers. She chaired the Elder Law, Conservatorship and Guardianship Committee Alameda County Bar Association and of East Bay Trusts & Estates Lawyers (2008-2010). She is a member of the California State Bar Trusts and Estates Executive Committee where she is active on the Incapacity, the Estate Planning, the Educating Consumers, and the Trust and Estate Quarterly subcommittees.

Ms. Durston is a contributing author to two of the University of California’s Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) practice treatises for lawyers: She coauthors Chapter 14 (“Duties of Conservators of the Estate”) and Chapter 22 (“Limited Conservatorships”) of CEB’sCalifornia Conservatorship Practiceand authors Chapter 5 (“Estate Planning”) of CEB’sSpecial Needs Trusts Planning: Drafting and Administration. She authored Chapter 12 (“Seeking or Opposing Removal of Trustee”) of Matthew Bender’s attorney practice guideCalifornia Trust coauthored a chapter on special needs trusts for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel’sAIDS Law Manual(2004 Fourth Edition). She is principal author with Linda G. Mills of “The Rhetoric, Politics, and Therapeutics of Opening Statements in Social Security Disability Hearings,”Yale Journal on Law and Feminism8, 1:119-144, 1996.

Ms. Durston is a frequent speaker to professional and community organizations on estate and special needs planning and administration. She recently appeared as a guest to discuss Social Security issues on Chuck Finney’s National Public Radio broadcast “Your Legal Rights” (station KALW).

Ms. Durston is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she received undergraduate and graduate (A.B., M.A., ., and Ph.D.) degrees in Rhetoric. She received her J.D. from New College of California School of Law of San Francisco in 1999. She was admitted to practice law in the State of California and in United States Federal Court in the Northern District of California also in 1999. Before Ms. Durston entered the legal profession, she lectured in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and in English at the University of California, Davis, and San Jose State University.

She is the proud mother of one, loves to read, cook, knit and hike, and has a soft spot for Beethoven, Bach and Boxer dogs.