N A E L A - National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys

More documents

Recommendations

Info

NAELA Member Discount Partner Offers Benefits to NAELA Members!! NAELA Member Discount Partners America’s Life Stories Contact: Dennis Stack 2733 N. Power Rd., Ste. 102 Mesa, AZ 85215 602-620-9844 info@americaslifestories www.americaslifestories.com Product information: Capturing Life’s Stories is a simple, inexpensive, easy to use kit that guides anyone through the productive recording of their life experiences. Discount to Members: 10% discount, starting at $17.95 Docubank Contact: Madeleine McLaughlin Client Services Manager PO Box 325 Narbeth, PA 19072 610-667-3524 info@docubank.com www.docubank.com Product information: Emergency storage and retrieval service for living wills and other advance medical directives. Discount to Members: 33% discount on fees (1yr. = $20, 5yr. = $60) InterActive Legal System Contact: Patricia McLelland 5500 Preston Road, Ste. 300 Dallas, TX 75205 (888) 315-0872 pam@ilsdocs.com www.WealthTransferPlanning.com Product information: Wealth Transfer Planning, complete drafting and expert system for lifetime estate planning, by Jonathan G. Blattmachr & Michael L. Graham. ILS offers outstanding customer service. Discount to Members: 10% discount on all products and services. Please mention code WTP-NAE01 when ordering. Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Inc. Contact: Gene Elwell 6010 Cornerstone Ct. San Diego, CA 92121 858-348-2207 800-934-5180, ext. 0, ask for Gene elwellg@kmbs.konicaminolta.us www.kmbs.konicaminolta.us Product information: Digital Copiers/Printers, Color Copiers, Color Printers and Fax Machines. The contact specializes in estate planning equipment. Discount to Members: 40% off on equipment. Will extend Fortune 500 pricing on service agreements. Legal Resources, LLC Contact: Meg Rudansky 36 Woodvale St. Sag Harbor, NY 11963 631-725-4778 mrudansky@legalresoucesllc.com www.legalresourcesllc.com Product Information: Senior Resource Guide Marketing System is an innovative marketing program that guides in creating a useful 22 page informative resource guide for those with long-term illness while building substantial referral sources and powerful distribution network for the guide. Discount to Members: Fifteen (15%) to NAELA members. Premier Software Contact: Tom Caffrey 1230 Brace Road Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 856-429-3010 tcaffrey@premiersoftware.com www.premiersoftware.com Product information: Installation and training of Time Matters and Elder Law Feature Package software for Elder Law practices. Discount to Members: 10% off on products* and services. (The 10% discount applies to the Elder Law Feature Package. The Time Matters product discount is still being negotiated.) You can trust these companies to be responsive and knowledgeable about NAELA members’ needs! The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys’ (NAELA) Member Discount Program provides discounts to NAELA members on a variety of products and services. The program was formed to develop partnerships with companies willing to participate in a group-purchasing program that extends discounts to NAELA members. You can look forward to receiving information directly from these vendors by contacting them for further information. NAELA will announce new partners as they are approved; meanwhile, we encourage you to take full advantage of this member service and reap the benefits of your NAELA membership! NAELA does not imply warranties as to the products or services offered by Member Discount Partners. It is recommended that NAELA members should assure themselves as to quality, integrity, suitability, and other relevant attributes. 26
Chapter President’s Listing Arizona Chapter Catherine Leas, CELA Sun City, AZ (623) 875-9501 Colorado Chapter Catherine Anne Seal, CELA Colorado Springs, CO (719) 448-0734 Florida Chapter Alice Reiter Feld, CELA Tamarac, FL (954) 726-6602 Georgia Chapter David G. Carter Atlanta, GA (378) 528-8480 Illinois Chapter Susan Lorraine Kennedy Chicago, IL (312) 460-8899 Kansas Chapter Molly M. Wood Lawrence, KS (785) 843-0811 Maryland/DC Chapter Morris Klein, CELA Bethesda, MD (301) 652-4462 Massachusetts Chapter Ian S. Oppenheim, CELA Halifax, MA (781) 294-8000 Missouri Chapter Reginald H. Turnbull, CELA Jefferson City, MO (573) 634-2910 New Jersey Chapter Eugene Rosner, CELA Clark, NJ (732) 382-6070 New York Chapter Bernard A. Krooks, CELA New York, NY (212) 490-2020 Ohio Rachel Kabb Effron, Esq. Beachwood, OH (216) 531-5222 California Chapter - Northern Trudi S. Riley-Quinn, CELA Roseville, CA (916) 782-8212 North Carolina Chapter J. Gregory Wallace, Esq. Raleigh, NC (919) 876-1400 Wendy A. Craig, Esq. Black Mountain, NC (828) 669-0799 California Chapter - Southern Brian Sheppard, CELA Encino, CA (818) 342-5799 South Carolina Chapter Mitchell C. Payne, Esq. Rock Hill, SC (803) 329-8656 Texas Chapter Michael B. Cohen, Esq. Dallas, TX (214) 720-0102 Virginia Chapter Joseph T. Buxton III CELA Yorktown, VA (757) 877-2248 Washington Chapter Julianne Kocer, Esq. Seattle, WA (206) 525-6919 I was looking for a paralegal to help me with my growing Medicaid practice a few years ago when a local DSS worker gave me a tip about a really sharp woman who had just left her job. She told me that Denise had always submitted excellent work in her preparation and processing of Medicaid applications for area nursing homes. But she also told me that Denise had gotten burnt out and only wanted to work part time. I called Denise and asked if she’d like to come in and explore the possibility of working for our law firm. She was reluctant inasmuch as (1) she was a social worker rather than a paralegal and (2) she had just recently left the workforce and was not really missing it all that much. We sat down a couple of weeks later and it was unmistakable that she’d be a great asset to my firm. She was not averse to working if the conditions suited her, but it was very obvious that she had really been overburdened at her last job. And she clearly did not want to work full time as she wanted to spend time at home with her two daughters. We talked about what we were seeking from each other and came up with a fairly unorthodox answer. Luckily, it is an arrangement that has been successful, with some tweaking, for more than six years now: She usually works from 20 - 30 hours per week, during whatever hours she chooses. She comes in to the office one morning each week. We use this time to review every file together. If she needs to meet with clients, she schedules the meetings for Tuesday, which is the day she is physically here. Using Off-Site Staff James M. Higgins, Jr., Esq. We have equipped her home office with a computer, telephone lines (phone and fax), answering machine, DSL Internet access, fax machine, copy machine, printer and scanner. She is linked to our network server and has access to all of our clients’ files (folders) on our computer system. This access includes all of our files, forms and other programs and data. We communicate, often, each day by email, telephone and/or fax. The hard files generally stay here in the office, unless she is assembling a Medicaid application for filing with DSS. Clients are given her home office telephone and fax numbers; she generally has more contact with my clients than I do. After a year or so, my practice grew and it was apparent that Denise was becoming overworked. We decided to teach one of the paralegals in the office, Rachael, about Medicaid work. Rachael also worked on most of my estate planning files along with handling real estate closings and various other areas of the law for other attorneys in the office. By using her a few hours a week on our Medicaid files, we were able to keep up with the daily work and were progressing really well as a team. Then Rachael announced that she was pregnant. When she told me that she and her husband were expecting, she did so with those big, puppy dog eyes: she didn’t want to return to work full time after the baby was born. So we decided to go back to the well and it worked out once again: Rachael works from 15 - 20 hours per week, again during (continued on page 28) 27
Page 1 and 2: N A E L A NEWS National Academy of
Page 3 and 4: N A E L A NEWS National Academy of
Page 5 and 6: Are You Ready for Your 2:30 Appoint
Page 7 and 8: President’s Message By Lawrence D
Page 9 and 10: Executive Director’s Message By S
Page 11 and 12: Tales of NAELA Saved by the NAELA A
Page 13 and 14: Address Medicaid’s Institutional
Page 15 and 16: Address Medicaid’s Institutional
Page 17 and 18: Vermont’s Long-Term Care Waiver G
Page 19 and 20: a d v e r t i s e m e n t
Page 21 and 22: Vermont’s Long- Term Care Waiver
Page 23 and 24: The Case Against Court Certificatio
Page 25: The Case Against Court Certificatio
Page 29 and 30: Introducing NAELA’s Newest Member
Page 31 and 32: NAELA Members in the News NAELA was
Page 33 and 34: Divorce Elder Law Style (continued
Page 35 and 36: MAY 2006 NATIONAL ELDER LAW MONTH S

N A E L A - National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?