Merri Rudd 
Enjoys Reward as Probate Judge 

Merri Rudd has always found delight in diversity. Good-heartedness 
and a sense of ethics are her cornerstones. 

Part of her work week is spent as Bernalillo County Probate 
Judge, helping citizens settle uncontested estates. Part of the time 
she operates Abogada Press from her Albuquerque home, where she 
publishes books on legal topics. On weekends, she might be digging 
in her garden, practicing the skills she learned as a master gardener, 
or swirling around the floor at a contra dance, sometimes calling the 
dance steps from a wooden stage. 

She also writes a regular column in the Albuquerque Journal and 
gives talks around the community. 

“I’ve always been happiest when I’m juggling a lot,” she says. 
Although Rudd attributes her initial sense of outrage and injustice 
to growing up in Memphis in the 1950s and 1960s, witnessing 
segregation and race riots firsthand, she planned to be an environmental 
activist after graduation from Vanderbilt University with a 
degree in English. The influence of two men, a banker 20 years her 
senior, and a former boss, shaped her early independence. “They 
encouraged me to accomplish anything I wanted and convinced me 
that my greatest strength was my ability to think unconventionally,” 
she says. 

She worked as an administrative assistant with the Tennessee 
Environment Council and National Public Radio in Washington, 
D.C., but a job as legal secretary with Covington & Burling in 
Washington, D.C. inspired the first shift in her career. As part of its 
pro bono program, the law firm donated six employees to a legal aid 
office for six months. Rudd so enjoyed helping people she applied 
to law school. 

“I figured there were two ways to fight battles, through the courts 
and the press,” she says. “I had writing skills, but I needed legal 
skills.” 

Remembering the month she had spent backpacking in New 
Mexico after college graduation, she chose the UNM School of Law, 
planning to concentrate on environmental law. She had fallen in 
love with the vistas and vast space of the West. But in her second 
year, an externship with the Senior Citizen’s Law Office turned her 
head. 

“I was hooked,” she says. “I love seniors, their wisdom and 
vibrancy.” 

Her attraction to the emerging field of elder law also was tied to 
her affection for her grandmother. 

While still a law student, Rudd co-authored the New Mexico 
Senior Citizens Handbook, which covered laws and programs 
affecting the state’s senior citizens. 

Following graduation in 1986, she clerked for William Bivins on 
the New Mexico Court of Appeals. Two years later, she clerked for 
U.S. Magistrate Robert McCoy. In between, she worked for the 
Senior Citizen’s Law Office and remained involved with them even 
after setting up her own elder law practice in 1988. 

For the next nine years, Rudd represented clients, often going to 
their homes to help prepare wills and trusts. She served on the 
Uniform Health Care Decisions Act task force, and in 1993 she was 
instrumental in drafting and lobbying a law that helps to ensure an 
individual’s right to cremation. 

In 1992, she published her first book: Life Planning in New 
Mexico, a lay person’s guide to elder law issues. In May 2004, the 
fourth edition came off the press. Like her initial influence into 
elder law, the book was inspired by her grandmother, who died in 
1991 after enduring undo frustrations later in life. 

“Knowledge is power and I hoped the book would help others 
avoid what my grandmother went through,” she says. 

Family Law in New Mexico, by Barbara Shapiro followed. So far, 
Abogada Press has published 14,000 books. 

Rudd continued her practice, but gradually the emotional nature 
of the field took its toll. “I liked the humanity of elder law, but there 
was no relief from losing clients,” she says. 

To offset the sadness of her practice, she overcame an overwhelming 
shyness and turned to teaching, at TVI and as an adjunct 
at the UNM law school. Her favorite students were the ones who 
didn’t want to be there, but needed it to fulfill a requirement. 

“By the end of the semester, most of them were into it,” she says. 
In 2001, she was appointed Probate Judge, then elected to a full 
term in 2002. She considers her position a dream job. 

“I get to be a judge without an adversarial setting.” she says. “And 
it’s a great opportunity to teach people about the law.” 

S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 
A L U M N I N E W S 
Merri Rudd receives the 4th edition of 
Life Planning in New Mexico at her home warehouse. 
U N M L A W 25