Professor Kathy Mandelbaum Honored as 2015 Red Cross House Volunteer of the Year

Professor Kathy Mandelbaum has been named the 2015 Red Cross House Volunteer of the Year for her work in Temple Law School’s Disaster Relief Clinic.

Professor Mandelbaum is an Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Tax Program at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Prior to joining the Temple Law faculty, Prof. Mandelbaum was a partner at the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal and Lewis for 20 years.  She supervises students in the LL.M. in Taxation, the J.D. /LL.M.in Taxation, the Estate Planning Certificate and the Employee Benefits Certificate.  She is also a frequent lecturer on estate planning and charitable giving topics, is on the Council for the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Tax Section and Chairs its Young Lawyers Committee.

As a volunteer in the clinic, Professor Mandelbaum uses her expertise in estate planning to make a difference in the lives of those affected by the countless disasters that strike our region each year, in part by harnessing a network of students, alumni and volunteers to run a bi-annual estate planning clinic at the Red Cross House – the Will to Survive.  In utilizing her knowledge of estate planning to help those who have survived a disaster, Professor Mandelbaum has shown that the law can aid in the recovery from disaster.

Professor Jennifer Bretschneider, Director of Experiential Programs at Temple Law, praised Professor Mandelbaum for her service. “Professor Mandelbaum explains often that each client we see continues to possess the most important things — things that no fire or other disaster can destroy,” she remarked. “Those things are the ability to decide the fundamental questions surrounding how we want to die, what we want for our children and who we choose to empower and trust with decisions that will affect us at death.  Empowering clients to have a voice at times of sickness or death prepares the survivors in a way that provides a sense of pride, worth and preparedness.  Professor Mandelbaum does all of this with the trademark compassion, humor and skill that sets Red Cross volunteers apart.”