Every once in a while, someone will ask me how I got in to elder law. Like many things in life, it wasn’t planned. It was more like a fortunate wandering into a wonderful career.
I didn’t set out to become a lawyer. After college, the plan was for me to work in the family business that had been thriving for three generations. But before I graduated, the family business failed and I decided to go to law school. After law school I earned an advanced law degree in taxation and started work as a business, tax and estate planning attorney. People are often surprised to hear that I actually like doing tax work because I enjoy the complexity.
In 1992, I started doing seminars to show people how to use living trusts and how to minimize estate taxes. People would come up to me after those seminars asking for help. Some wanted help with estate planning-related legal issues. Others wanted to protect an elderly loved one’s assets while qualifying him or her for Medicaid/Title XIX. I encouraged these people to find elder law attorneys experienced in Medicaid applications but often heard that they had talked to other law firms and were told that nothing could be done.
That’s when I started thinking about becoming an elder law attorney. I had learned the basics of Medicaid eligibility and realized that I might be able to use my knowledge to help these people who didn’t have anywhere else to go. And so I started taking cases.
Gradually, my skill and confidence grew. Every time someone came to see me, I would look at the facts of the case. Even if the facts of two cases seemed identical, I would have to devise a different solution for each because every situation when closely examined was different. With every case I took, I learned more, especially from the families I worked with. Clients would share what they had learned during the long-term care journey and I would share my growing knowledge with other families.
Then I decided I wanted to become a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA). While studying for the certification exam, I learned about even more topics that were relevant to the needs my clients were presenting, things like how the medical system works, Medicare rules, pensions, special needs trusts and many other topics.
After I passed the CELA exam, the firm began to add services. We started doing special needs trusts and added Life Care Planning to our service menu. Life Care Planning was a great addition because it enabled us to help our clients with problems that were outside the scope of the traditional asset-focused elder law firm, things like case management, care coordination and care advocacy. So I added non-legal staff like elder care coordinators with social work or medical training. We also added services to help people with disabilities and those facing catastrophic illnesses. Though these individuals face a different set of challenges, their families have many of the same needs as those of our elderly clients.
As the firm grew, my passion for elder law grew as well and I wanted to give back. I had been a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys for a while and was traveling around the country attending workshops and meeting like-minded professionals. I wanted local attorneys to have the same opportunities for education and networking so I started the Connecticut Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Working to build a local network of attorneys dedicated to helping seniors in the same way I am has been very satisfying.
Why do I enjoy the practice of elder law so much? I enjoy being part of the team we have assembled to give our clients the most comprehensive and personalized planning available anywhere. The work I do is intellectually challenging. I don’t like doing the same thing every day and in an elder law practice, no two days are alike. I also find the work with families to be immensely rewarding. I’m able to use everything I’ve learned so far to help family members step back, see the problem from a different perspective and reach consensus on a plan of action. I love it because I can see the effect our work has on families. Everyone is so grateful—and not just after we’re done working with them. Their gratitude is apparent before we even begin. For these families, knowing that someone will be there to guide them during the long-term care journey relieves a lot of stress.
I also cherish the multi-generational nature of my work. Some clients have been with me for years—through the creation of their initial estate plans, through the long-term illnesses of their parents, and work with them and their children during their own later years.
Elder law is challenging. If practiced comprehensively, it consists of eleven distinct practice areas that are constantly changing. The dynamic and demanding nature of the field is one of the things I like the most. It’s also the reason so few attorneys choose this path, and one of the reasons why so few competent and accomplished elder law attorneys are general practitioners.
Not everyone gets the chance to do work they love, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve families in this way. It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of our clients’ lives while earning the trust they put in us to guide their family as they face new challenges.
