About
Myra Gerson Gilfix is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University. She continued at Stanford Law School, where she won a Hilmer Oehlmann Award for excellence in legal research and writing. She is a founding member and a Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). She has special expertise in, and has authored numerous articles on patients' rights issues, including the right to informed consent, the right to refuse treatment, and decision-making for persistently vegetative adults. Publications in which her work has appeared include the American Journal of Law and Medicine, Head Trauma Quarterly, and California Lawyer.
Ms. Gilfix has focused her professional career on topical issues in health law. She was co-counsel for the petitioning conservator in Conservatorship of Drabick, California's seminal case establishing the rights of incapacitated individuals to have critical decisions regarding life-sustaining medical treatments made as they would wish and in their best interests. She co-authored the amicus curiae brief on behalf of NAELA in support of the petitioners in Cruzan v. Harmon, the pivotal "right to die" case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. She has worked with health care providers and served on various boards of directors of health care facilities. She has given presentations on health care decision-making to a wide variety of audiences, including lawyers, physicians, medical students, other professionals, and the general public.
Among her many community activities is her role as President of Parents for Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning. While she consults with the other attorneys at Gilfix and La Poll Associates LLP, she is currently not seeing clients.