Gary B. Strickland, an Arizona licensed fiduciary, is the Maricopa County Public Fiduciary. As such, he directs an office addressing the need for guardianship and conservatorship of those requiring oversight and protection in the largest and most populated County in Arizona.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Strickland was Senior General Counsel for Maricopa County, having previously served as a Deputy County Attorney/Civil Division. For many years, Mr. Strickland was an Administrative Law Judge with the State Office of Administrative Hearings presiding over cases involving State administrative appeals. He also serves as a Judge Pro Tem in Maricopa County Superior Court. A frequently-invited speaker, Mr. Strickland received his legal training at the University of Notre Dame and Washington University (St. Louis) Law Schools. In addition, he holds several other degrees in Theology and History and has taught languages (Latin and Greek) and law at the graduate and undergraduate levels. An attorney licensed in Arizona, Illinois, and Missouri, he presents regularly on issues related to trial practice, health care law, and probate law.

Mr. Strickland often quotes from Cicero who wrote over two thousand years ago in his de Senectute (“On Old Age”):

"Life's race-course is fixed; Nature has only a single path and that path is run but once, and to each stage of existence has been allotted its own appropriate quality; so that the weakness of childhood, the impetuosity of youth, the seriousness of middle life, the maturity of old age — each bears some of Nature's fruit, which must be garnered in its own season. . . . [O]ld age is honored only on condition that it defends itself, maintains its rights, is subservient to no one, and to the last breath rules over its own domain."

The goal of the Office of the Public Fiduciary is to afford dignity to each of those brought to its attention and to ensure that the rights and independence of each individual are preserved, regardless age or condition.