About Carolyn

Carolyn Reinach Wolf is an Executive Partner in the law firm of Abrams Fensterman, LLP and Director of the Firm’s Mental Health Law practice. She is the only attorney in the country with a family-focused mental healthcare practice. Supported by a team of expert clinicians, she specializes in guiding families through the complex landscape of legal issues that impact loved ones with serious mental illness and/or substance use issues. She also represents institutions, such as major hospital systems, community hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and outpatient programs, consulting on matters including capacity, mental hygiene law, end of life decision making, development and ongoing functioning of ethics committees, advance directives and institutional review boards. She also represents mental health and healthcare professionals, and higher educational institutions. A New York Times profile of her is available here. Ms. Wolf’s expertise encompasses mental hygiene law, including retention and treatment over objection psychiatric cases; mental health warrants; capacity determinations; informed consent and medical treatment cases; confidentiality and release of records matters; interaction with law enforcement in family matters, health care facilities and institutions of higher education; Kendra’s Law applications (Assisted Outpatient Treatment Orders); Article 81 and 17-A guardianship proceedings; civil and criminal litigation and negotiation specific to mental health issues; consultation and advice in navigating the mental health system and legal interventions in the inpatient and outpatient treatment settings as well as mental health issues in the higher education setting. Ms. Wolf is immediate Past President of the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (NaBITA), a membership association serving more than 1,500 professionals in schools, colleges and workplaces whose role is to support individuals in need of mental health intervention and to minimize the potential for school and workplace violence. She is also a frequently invited speaker and consultant to healthcare and mental health organizations, as well as institutions of higher education, specifically university counseling centers and administrators, and professional associations throughout the country regarding mental health law issues and many of the above-mentioned topics. She has been selected to the New York Super Lawyers list since 2013 and the Best Lawyers of America since 2018. This year Ms. Wolf is being recognized as Lawyer of the Year for Health Care Law by The Best Lawyers in America®. Ms. Wolf holds a J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, an M.S. in Health Services Administration from the Harvard School of Public Health and an M.B.A. in Management from the Hofstra University School of Business. She is admitted to practice in New York State and Federal Courts as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, Ms. Wolf is an adjunct professor at Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, teaching ”Law and Psychiatry.“ Prior to practicing law, Ms. Wolf was a hospital administrator and Director of Hospital Risk Management.

Practice Areas

Education

• Hofstra University, M.B.A.
• University of Maryland, B.A.
• Harvard University, M.S.
• Hofstra University, J.D., graduated 1988

Bar Admissions

• New York, New York State Bar Association

Languages