Services

Julie Stoil Fernandez is an experienced litigator who concentrates in elder law and mental health advocacy. As such, she regularly brings petitions before the New York  State Supreme Court in every county in New York City for Guardianship of incapacitated individuals on behalf of their families, institutions in which they reside and/or concerned friends in the community.

Ms. Stoil Fernandez is a member of the New York State Office of Court Administration’s panel of qualified experts to serve by court appointment as Court Evaluator, Counsel and/or Guardian of person and property of incapacitated individuals. As Guardian, she has been appointed in more than two dozen individuals.

In addition to the Guardianships, Ms. Stoil Fernandez provides an array of elder law services to individual clients including estate planning and exploring long-term care options, drafting wills, powers of attorney and health care proxy documents and handling probate and estate administration.

Ms. Stoil Fernandez additionally represents the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation bringing petitions before the State Supreme Court for Court-Ordered involuntary  out-patient treatment pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law §9.60 and other Article 9 proceedings.

Prior to the commencement of her practice in 2000, Ms. Stoil Fernandez worked for seven years for the Mental Hygiene Legal Service, New York State Appellate Division, First Judicial Department. As an attorney for the state’s mental health advocacy agency, Ms. Stoil Fernandez litigated hundreds of cases on behalf of individual patients in both public and private psychiatric  facilities in matters involving involuntary care and treatment and class actions concerning the quality of care in state hospitals. Her work included representing persons adjudicated not guilty by reason of mental disease pursuant to CPL 330.20 and persons deemed incapacitated pursuant to CPL 730.00 et seq.

Ms. Stoil Fernandez has also been the Director of a 500-bed emergency overnight homeless men’s shelter in Boston, Massachusetts and worked as a counselor/administrator in shelters for the homeless for four years before law school.

Ms. Stoil Fernandez is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Committees on  Guardianship and Elder Law and Trusts and Estates. She has served on a qualified panel of attorneys referred by The Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the New York County Lawyers’ Association.

Ms. Stoil Fernandez is a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she received her B.A. in 1985  and of Northeastern University Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 1992. She was admitted to the Bar of the State of New York in November, 1993.