Proud to be a Certified Elder Law Attorney

Last week I received an email from the new President of the Board of Directors of the National Elder Law Foundation (NELF). As a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) myself, his words struck a chord with me. As CELAs, we take pride in the fact we are uniquely trained to work with the elderly, their families, and special needs clients. Mr. Whatley’s words perfectly capture my thoughts.

A Message from the New NELF President:

First, I want to say that I am honored that I get to be what is known as an Elder Law Attorney.  I think this is the best job in the world.  I, like all of you, get to work with families in some of their worst times and hardest situations.  They bring those situations into our office and lay them down on our conference table with really no idea how to deal with it and many times hearing that there are no solutions.  We as elder law attorneys get to sit with that family and solve that problem in a way that they never thought could happen.  We preserve rights of the elderly, we help them plan for really tough times and make those times as easy as possible.  We help families of those with special needs have the best life possible by saving benefits and still providing above and beyond what those benefits pay.  We preserve estates and pass a lifetime of work on to those they want it to go to as efficiently as possible.

Second, I am honored that I get to call myself a Certified Elder Law Attorney.  Achieving this designation was what I thought the crowning achievement of being an Elder Law Attorney.  The years of practice and study, the ability to stick to it when there was really no one out there to help me answer the questions and then passing that quite difficult exam finally resulted in this designation.  As a Certified Elder Law Attorney, I was in a very select group of the truly best attorneys in the field and I was tremendously proud…

Todd Whatley, CELA