By Julie M. Fiedler, CELA, and Letha Sgritta McDowell, CELA
Provision • Protection • Prosperity
The 2016 NAELA Annual Conference was held in Denver, Colo., April 14-16. This year’s conference presentations were centered around three major learning tracts — Provision, Protection, and Prosperity:
• Provision: How we, as elder law and special needs planning attorneys, help ensure that our clients are provided for;
• Protection: Estate and tax planning to protect our clients; and
• Prosperity: Practice management and ways in which we can prosper in our practices so that we can continue to advocate for our clients.
The conference began with a keynote speech by Mary Tallouzi from Wounded Warrior Speak®. Mary shared her journey as a caregiver for her son Daniel Tallouzi, who returned from service overseas with a traumatic brain injury. Her story was one of strength and served to remind us of the struggles that exist not only for veterans, but for all caregivers as well. Her story inspired us to continue to advocate for those with special needs or cognitive impairment, and to support caregivers who have sacrificed much to provide care for their loved ones.
The Thursday evening reception was sponsored by the Colorado NAELA Chapter. Attendees enjoyed excellent food and drinks, while catching up with old friends and networking with new ones. Many attendees continued the fun by participating in a lively team trivia after the reception.
In addition to our keynote speaker, we were fortunate to be joined by Lawrence J. Fox, a well-known expert on the subject of attorney ethics. Larry has written a number of books on the subject of professional responsibility and has been consulted for advice on the topic by private attorneys, the ABA, as well as popular television shows like “The Today Show” and “Nightline.” Larry served as a speaker and moderator for this year’s Clifton Kruse Ethics Lecture, which was a debate about the ethics of providing and profiting from ancillary services. [See the Practical Ethics Column on page 17 of this issue.] Larry provided an overview of the rules of professional responsibility. He then asked probing questions of the panelists, who are themselves experts on the topics of ethics and ancillary services. Audience participation in the discussion was lively.
Amos Goodall, CELA, Fellow, facilitated an interactive general session that posed hypothetical client situations and offered the chance for newer and more experienced NAELA members to brainstorm solutions to common elder law scenarios.
This year’s conference was full of excellent speakers with a breadth of topics appealing to a wide audience. In addition to great topics and speakers, the networking was fantastic. It appeared that every attendee met a NAELA member they hadn’t known before.
As the 2016 Annual Conference co-chairs, we are grateful for all the hard work done by the committee, and for all of our volunteer speakers. We want to thank all of them for working together to make this a great conference.
We are certain that the tradition of great Annual Conferences will continue at next year’s Annual Conference to be held in Boston, Mass., on April 27–29, 2017. Mark your calendars now. We look forward to seeing you in Boston!
About the Authors
Julie M. Fiedler, CELA, is co-chair of the 2016 Annual Conference Committee and a past NAELA Board member. Letha Sgritta McDowell, CELA, is co-chair of the 2016 Annual Conference Committee and a current member of the NAELA Board of Directors.
Special Thanks for Our Annual Conference Committee Co-Chairs
Julie M. Fiedler, CELA
San Ramon, Calif.
Letha Sgritta McDowell, CELA
Garner, N.C.
Members
Jean Galloway Ball, CELA, CAP
Fairfax, Va.
Thomas D. Begley, III, CELA
Mt. Laurel, N.J.
Judith M. Flynn, Esq.
Quincy, Mass.
H. Amos Goodall, Jr., CELA
State College, Pa.
A. Frank Johns, LLM, CELA, CAP
Greensboro, N.C.
Michael C. Weeks, CELA
St. Charles, Mo.
Seminar Review
Practice Success Section’s Roundtable Presentation on the Unlicensed Practice of Law
By Leonard Mondschein, CELA, CAP
This year’s Annual Conference featured roundtable discussions presented by NAELA Sections covering several topics of interest to NAELA members: The Practice Success Section presented “Staffing and Management,” by April Hill, CELA, CAP; “The UPL Challenge,” by Leonard E. Mondschein, CELA, CAP; and “5@55, An Update,” by Judith Grimaldi, CELA, CAP. The Guardianship/Conservatorship, Tax, Health Care, Government Assistance Programs, and Special Needs Law Sections each presented “Hot Topics” specific to their areas. Each roundtable was presented twice so attendees could participate in more than one discussion, and the small group environment helped contribute to lively discussions.
I presented “The UPL Challenge” roundtable, which discussed the Florida experience regarding the unlicensed practice of law (UPL) and nonattorney Medicaid planners. Since participants were from other states, they were especially interested in how Florida addressed this problem. The 2015 Florida Supreme Court UPL Opinion and its enforcement regarding Medicaid Planning was presented to the group. Options such as filing UPL complaints with the respective state bars as well as litigation were discussed. Attorneys who aid and abet UPL were another problem discussed by the group.
In addition to non-attorney Medicaid planners, non-attorney VA filers were also a concern, especially in California. The groups discussed the need for UPL opinions in every state, as well as the need for enforcement of these opinions in order to limit UPL in the VA area. Also, the fact that UPL in Florida is a “complaint-driven” process makes enforcement difficult, as elderly and people with disabilities are often unwilling to file a complaint.
Some suggestions discussed at this roundtable included forming UPL committees as part of an Elder Law Section or NAELA Chapter, writing articles in local newspapers, public speaking, meeting with nursing home administrators and VA service organizations, and, since the Florida Supreme Court’s UPL Opinion has been very well received by elder law attorneys around the country, it could be presented to other state bars as a model for enacting a similar opinion.
The attendees at this session came away with a new approach to combating UPL and nonattorney Medicaid and VA planners in their respective states.