Best Bets: Elder Law

By Barbara Kate Repa
     
The thriving practice of elder law seems to attract a kinder, gentler breed of attorney: part lawyer, part social worker. Most make house calls and even visit clients in nursing homes; some give out their home phone numbers to needy clients. And they're also a collegial bunch, quick to refer a case or a compliment to a colleague.
      Many such compliments are aimed at Michael Gilfix, who is largely credited with pioneering the field. Gilfix founded the nation's first free legal-aid program for elders back in 1973, and was then chosen by the federal Administration on Aging (part of the Department of Health and Human Services) to create a national model program for elder-law services. He was also the first to register the trade name "elder law," and then signed away those rights to the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, which he cofounded in 1988. (The term has since become a generic name.) The group now boasts nearly 4,700 members nationwide, about 600 in California.
      Gilfix says the law firm he established in 1983 was the first to do true elder law: a blend of estate planning and benefits work. Now he seems to be reaping the seeds sowed earlier. His seven-attorney firm, Gilfix & La Poll in Palo Alto, now takes in 40 to 80 new clients every month.
      "The term elder law means different things to different people," says Gilfix. "Some say it's the same as Medi-Cal, but it's more than that. Some say, 'I don't do tax.' But I say you can't do elder law unless you do tax. Elder law is the next step in the evolution of estate planning. It adds an element of planning to long-term care that didn't used to receive enough attention and respect."
      Betsy Angevine, a sole practitioner in Whittier, first edged toward practicing elder law when she inherited her father's probate practice in the mid-1980s. She noticed that more complicated estate planning issues kept arising, due to a combination of the Medicare system directing people to nursing homes and a generation of independent clients outliving their life expectancies.
      "It's a delicate thing, dealing with aging clients. I have to get information that's deeply personal to do a good job representing them," says Angevine, who notes that clients often talk to her about the loss of a spouse or vent about a greedy child. "I charge by the hour, but not for time they spend grieving or discussing unrelated social things."
      Practitioners say that much has changed since elder law's infancy, when it was mostly about asset transfers for house-rich and cash-poor clients. It now concerns fine-tuning solutions to meet individual legal and personal needs. And the practice is made more complicated by the proliferation of possibilities: more housing and payment options, special-needs trusts, reverse mortgages, elder-abuse prohibitions, and so on.
      "I really think elder law is the place to be," says Martha Jo Patterson, a sole practitioner in Woodland Hills, noting that the Alzheimer's Association recently reported that 10 million U.S. baby boomers will develop the disease during their lifetimes. "That's a lot of people-and you really have to do a different kind of planning for dementia than you do for death," says Patterson. "Very few lawyers understand that."
      While many lawyers are feeling the pinch in these uncertain economic times, most elder law practitioners say business is good. "This area might even be countercyclic," says Philip P. Lindsley, a sole practitioner at the San Diego Elder Law Center. "When the economy gets bad, people become more concerned about benefit programs and preserving assets, which are at the core of elder law."
      Lindsley also underscores that the field has morphed in the many years he's been concentrating on it. "One big change is an increasing appreciation for the unique ethical dilemmas," he says. "About half the time, the elders are the clients. But if I waited for the 'Greatest Generation' to pick up the phone and call, I'd starve. It's usually the baby-boomer kids who bring them in. Then the questions become: Do you meet as a family? Who do you represent? Are multiple representations all right?"
      Practitioners, however, warn that elder law isn't for everyone. "For some people, it's a little touchy-feely," says Ruth A. Phelps, a partner at Phelps, Schwarz & Phelps in Pasadena. "Clients aren't coming to me with a business problem. They're saying, 'I need help with my mother.' Foul up someone's mother's life, and you'll never hear the end of it. But on the other hand, what bigger honor can you give me than to say you trusted me with your mom?"
     
      Barbara Kate Repa, a lawyer and author in San Francisco, is senior contributing editor at Caring.com, a website that hepls children care for their aging parents.
     

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