Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, Esq. accredited
as Certified Elder Law Attorney
Dateline: April, 2005
Announcement:
Shareholder Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, a member of the Firm's Tax, Trust and Estates and Elder Law Department, has been accredited as a Certified Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation, the only organization approved by the American Bar Association to offer certification of Elder Law as a specialty area.* We applaud her efforts and look forward to continuing to serve the needs of our senior clients and their families.
The following is an excerpt from the National Elder Law Foundation website (www.nelf.org) announcing and describing the elder law certification program and requirements:
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Certification
In Elder Law Available
To Attorneys; To Benefit The Public
Tucson, Ariz. - The National Elder Law Foundation, through its Board of Certification (Board), has announced a program to certify attorneys in the area of elder law, one of the fastest growing areas of the legal profession.
The certification program has been developed to identify those lawyers who have the enhanced knowledge, skills, and experience to be properly identified to the public as certified elder law attorneys. The Board has developed and promulgated rules and regulations regarding certification and has begun the process of accepting applications.
The ABA's Standing Committee on Specialization for accreditation has approved NELF as a certifying agency - the only organization offering certification in elder law.
The minimum requirements for attorneys to receive certification in elder law are as follows:
- The
attorney must be licensed to practice law in at least one state or
jurisdiction in the United States.
- The
attorney must have been in active law practice during the preceding five years
before submitting an application. Service as a full-time judge or law
professor at an accredited law school will also be considered.
-
Applicants must be in good standing in all of the bar associations in all
jurisdictions where they are licensed to practice law.
-
Applicants must demonstrate substantial involvement and experience in elder
law. This is defined as having spent a minimum of 16 hours per week in each of
the three years immediately preceding the application date. -more-
Certification Program/2 Elder law is described in the Rules and Regulations as
thirteen defined service areas. In addition, the applicants must have handled
at least 60 elder law matters during those three years, in a specified
distribution within those thirteen areas.
-
Applicants must attend continuing legal education of at least 45 hours in
elder law during the preceding three years.
- At
least five confidential professional references must be submitted by
applicants from attorneys familiar with the applicant's qualifications and
competence in elder law.
- Applicants must sit for and pass an examination designed to measure elder law practice skills.
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(*) The National Elder Law Foundation is not affiliated with any governmental authority. Certification is not a requirement for the practice of law in the State of New York and does not necessarily indicate greater competence than other attorneys experienced in this field of law.
This Article is a service of the Tax, Trust and Estates and Elder Law Department of Fein, Such, Kahn & Shepard, P.C., 7 Century Drive, Suite 201, Parsippany, NJ 07960. Phone: 973-538-4700. Website: www.feinsuch.com. It does not constitute legal advice nor create an attorney-client relationship. For more information contact Shareholder Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss at dwheatley@feinsuch.com.
© 2005, Fein, Such, Kahn & Shepard, P.C., all rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce and redistribute this article so long as (i) the entire article, including all headings and the copyright notice are included in the reproduction, and (ii) no fee or other charge is imposed.