By Crystal West Edwards, CELA, and Valerie Geiger, Esq.
With monuments and memorials, world class restaurants and diverse neighborhoods, our nation’s capital was the perfect city to host this year’s Summit in November. More than 220 elder and special needs law attorneys arrived on November 14 to attend NAELA’s 2019 Summit. The 2019 Summit offered 24 informative presentations preceded by NAELA’s two-day Advanced Elder Law Review. This year’s conference offered education and resources for attendees to advance their practices to the next level. Sessions ranged from “Future of Long-Term Care: A Multi State Perspective to Tried and True Marketing Tips to Energize your Practice to Drafting POAs.” After the keynote session, “State and Federal Policy Initiatives in Long-Term Care Finance and Delivery” presented by consultant and author Howard Gleckman, the conference provided practitioners additional opportunities to stay current on a variety of issues impacting elder and special needs law with a diverse selection of CLE-approved educational sessions and seemingly endless networking opportunities.
A Variety of Elder and Special Needs Law Topics
This year’s conference was full of excellent speakers with a breadth of topics appealing to a wide audience. Some of the substantive highlights of the conference included:
• Mastering Elder Abuse Civil Remedies. Attendees left this session with an understanding of available causes of action and effective strategies for pleadings, evidence, and civil procedure.
• Too Much to Qualify, Not Enough to Live — Flowchart Analysis of What Can Be Done with Excess Funds When A Person Is Receiving SSI or Medicaid. Past NAELA President Craig Reaves, CELA, CAP, Fellow, provided a path to follow when advising a person who is receiving SSI or Medicaid assistance and has too many countable assets or is aware that someone is considering giving assets to the person.
• Breaking Out of the Conventional Mold of Advanced Directive Counseling. Based upon the recommendations of a working summit of legal and clinical experts in advance care planning, this session presented usable and actionable best practice guidelines and a checklist enabling practitioners to use advance care planning practices that are more person-centered, aligned with the clinical realities of end-of-life decision-making, and result in patients’ goals of care and wishes being known and honored in clinical settings.
• VA Accreditation Workshop. Practitioners who needed to fulfill their accreditation requirements with the Department of Veterans Affairs could attend the 3-hour VA Accreditation workshop offered before the Summit kick-off on Thursday.
• A complimentary workshop was offered, How to Plan a Conference That Everyone Wants to Attend. Many chapter leaders attended and found it helpful as they design and plan state chapter events as well as practitioners who host community events.
Lots of Time for Networking
In addition to great topics and speakers, there were several networking opportunities for attendees from Dine-A-Rounds to NAELA’s traditional Welcome Reception on Thursday evening. Many conference attendees supported NAELA’s Foundation by attending the ever-popular Capitol Steps comedy show on Friday night.
NAELA’s live events prove to be an excellent opportunity to catch up with friends and create new relationships with NAELA colleagues. NAELA national conferences also include an opportunity for first-time attendees to meet each other and establish a connection before the conference kicks off.
On many levels, the 2019 Summit was quite a success, but these things are not possible without the dedication and commitment of many volunteers. We sincerely appreciate the hard work of our speakers, and planning committees. And we appreciate the support of our valued sponsors and exhibitors. See you in April in Seattle (April 30–May 1, 2020).
About the Authors
Crystal West Edwards, CELA, and Valerie Geiger, Esq., are 2019 Summit Planning Committee Co-Chairs.