Author (Guest Blogger): Matthew T. Smith
In 20 years the population that will require nursing home
care will have grown almost 300%. What
do you think the chances are that there will be enough attorneys who specialize
in the area of elder law and special needs trusts to adequately deal with the health
care leviathan that is the baby boomer generation? With the legal job market being the most
difficult it has been for new attorneys in the last 30 years, does it not makes
sense that new attorneys should be looking into nontraditional areas that have
a real potential for growth and development?
Personal injury will always be around, but there are more personal injury
attorneys than are actually needed.
Public defender and state attorneys are always needed, but with the
skyrocketing cost of student loans and inflation in our economy the 35-40,000
dollar a year salary may just not be feasible.
Why won’t new attorneys stop, take a look around, and ask themselves
where there is the greatest need? It’s
as if the new attorneys are fireman who just got the call about an emergency
that requires their help. They hurry
down the street to see a nursing home on fire on one side of the road, with only
one or two fireman putting out the blaze, and on the other side of the road
there is a kitten stuck in a tree with 100 firemen already attempting to pry
the cat down. The fireman already
helping the cat also have TV commercials and their pictures painted on buses
and billboards. Which side of the road
has the best chance of a new fireman getting some real life practical
experience in their profession? Which
side allows the greatest possibility of getting personal satisfaction in
helping someone? Which side do you
believe is going to be more grateful to you?
There are only a few
areas of law that have the potential for growth that elder law promises, and none of
them in my point of view can be as personally rewarding as being able to sit down with a family, for instance, and help
them to develop a plan for their future.
All of this while still being fairly compensated sounds too good to be
true. Now, I know that developing wills,
trusts, and having to deal with Medicaid and tax issues is not as sexy as, say
litigation, but look at how many personal injury cases actually go to trial. How many of those cases are being handled by
someone who is just starting out? If you
are still convinced that litigation holds all of the excitement you believe
that you need, then go and actually talk with a litigation attorney, or better
yet spend a day at the court house watching the streams of people go in and
out. What will you find?
If you believe that you were meant to work as legal counsel
for a large firm that is great, but do you really know what the typical work of
day of an attorney at one of those large firms looks like? Once again, go talk with an attorney who
actually does work at one of those firms and then ask yourself if spending 70
hours a week doing discovery requests for the possibility of one day, 5 years
from now, becoming partner is well worth it. I
am over generalizing, and I know both personal injury litigation attorneys and
large defense firm attorneys who are happy with the work that they do, but I
know for a fact that they are the exception to the rule.
It is time if you have either just started law school or have been out of school practicing for a couple of years to really ask yourself what it is that drives you. I asked myself that question and found that I have always been involved with helping people whether it is the disabled or the less fortunate than me. At the same time I have a young son who I must provide for as well as a mountain of student loan debt along with other financial obligations. I am also not strong willed enough to be a social worker or public defender, but what I can do is empathize and talk sincerely with people. I am genuinely concerned with helping people with their problems, and what better way to help them than to make sure that their family will be financially protected for the future? If we can have more attorneys who feel the same way that I do, then get involved and focus-in on the area of elder law - we will be able to solve a lot of the upcoming problems facing the baby boomer generation before it is too late! It is not rocket science. The famous bank robber Willie Sutton is known for having said, when asked why he robbed banks, “because that is where the money is.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Sutton The children of the greatest generation that ever lived needs our help, and we need theirs, and the best way to do that is to work together in securing their future by utilizing and advancing, skillfully, the practice of elder law.
It is time if you have either just started law school or have been out of school practicing for a couple of years to really ask yourself what it is that drives you. I asked myself that question and found that I have always been involved with helping people whether it is the disabled or the less fortunate than me. At the same time I have a young son who I must provide for as well as a mountain of student loan debt along with other financial obligations. I am also not strong willed enough to be a social worker or public defender, but what I can do is empathize and talk sincerely with people. I am genuinely concerned with helping people with their problems, and what better way to help them than to make sure that their family will be financially protected for the future? If we can have more attorneys who feel the same way that I do, then get involved and focus-in on the area of elder law - we will be able to solve a lot of the upcoming problems facing the baby boomer generation before it is too late! It is not rocket science. The famous bank robber Willie Sutton is known for having said, when asked why he robbed banks, “because that is where the money is.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Sutton The children of the greatest generation that ever lived needs our help, and we need theirs, and the best way to do that is to work together in securing their future by utilizing and advancing, skillfully, the practice of elder law.
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Mr. Smith's site is http://www.babyboomerslaw.com/ and his email is: msmith2905@gmail.com. If you would like to learn more about the author, please visit the previous post with his bio at http://www.thesololawyer.org/2012/07/matthew-smith-guest-blogger-promising.html.
Mr. Smith's site is http://www.babyboomerslaw.com/ and his email is: msmith2905@gmail.com. If you would like to learn more about the author, please visit the previous post with his bio at http://www.thesololawyer.org/2012/07/matthew-smith-guest-blogger-promising.html.
