Posted: May 13th, 2015
Professor Kate Mewhinney gave two presentations at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, sponsored by the Bioethics Committee:
“The Closet Door is Open: How Are You Caring for LGBT Patients and Families?” Her co-presenters were Kaycee Sink, MD, MAS, and Jennifer Harriss, a long-term care ombudsman with the regional Area Agency on Aging.
“Grappling With Guardianship: Ethical Dilemmas.” Her co-presenter was Linda Childers, MSW, LCSW, ACM, who is a Manager of Care Coordination at the medical center.
Hannah McKay (left) is the clinic’s new Client Coordinator. She is at mckayhm@wfu.edu.
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Posted: May 13th, 2015
Erin McKee organized a voter education program last fall. Taking this work to the next level, she created a website that lists the voter ID requirements, including exceptions for older and disabled voters, for all fifty states. Visit the website at www.voteridhelp.org. The American Society on Aging recognized the importance of this effort by inviting Erin to attend its annual meeting in Chicago, where she gave a poster presentation about these voting rights issues.
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Posted: May 13th, 2015
Crissy Dixon will continue to learn in the Elder Law Clinic by working there half-time this summer. The rest of the time, she will work with the Forsyth County District Attorney’s office, focusing on cases of elder abuse, exploitation, and neglect.
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Posted: April 14th, 2015
Professor Kate Mewhinney
Wake Forest Law Professor Kate Mewhinney, director of the Elder Law Clinic, and two law students, LaRita Dingle (’15) and Crissy Dixon (’16), will participate in a free Advanced Healthcare Planning workshop from 1-4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15, at Senior Services in Winston-Salem, N.C. Presented by the North Carolina Bar Association, the workshop is one of 55 offered during the month of April, which has been designated National Healthcare Decisions Month, as part of the Community Partnership for Compassionate Care coalition’s “Got Plans?” campaign.
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Posted: January 14th, 2015
Gelila Selassie, Ben Winikoff, Heidi Muller
Erin McKee, Colton Sexton
This fall, the Elder Law Clinic moved into a spacious suite on the ground floor of the law school. The space was completely renovated and specifically designed to meet the needs of clients and students. Reserved client parking is directly in front of the building. Come visit sometime soon!
Unfazed by the changes going on around them, this semester’s “associates” worked on a variety of cases. Each of them handled a guardianship matter and prepared several wills. They advised some clients about debtor-creditor laws and others about health care laws that cover long-term care.
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Posted: January 14th, 2015
Erin McKee led the clinic’s involvement in a program that focused on voting rights. Its goal was to ensure voting access for older and disabled voters. We were honored to collaborate with several organizations. Shown below, L to R: Charmaine Fuller Cooper (AARP of N.C.), Erin McKee, Professor Kate Mewhinney, Ann Fesmire (League of Women Voters of the Piedmont), Brent Laurenz (N.C. Center for Voter Education), Marlene Pratto (LWV of the Piedmont), and Linda Sutton (Democracy N.C.).
Resources on voting rights can be found on the Elder Law Clinic website. Erin also wrote a piece about voting access laws for the N.C. Bar Association’s Elder Law Section newsletter.
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Posted: January 14th, 2015
A recent career panel on elder law featured attorneys Jonathan Williams (‘11), Ben Limehouse (’14) and Karen Malay, who is with the firm of Allman Spry. Limehouse has joined the Winston-Salem firm of Wells Liipfert, as an associate.
The clinic students were fortunate to hear from Aimee Smith (‘02), who helped teach a class on Medicaid planning strategies. Parker Smith (‘12) came to talk about an elder abuse prevention project she leads with Pisgah Legal Services, Asheville. It is funded by a grant from the N.C. Attorney General. She was introduced, below, by Professor Mewhinney.
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Posted: January 14th, 2015
Erin McKee got a telephone call. It was the day before her new client was to come in, and the client’s daughter was calling. She wanted to know if she could talk to Erin before her mom came. These seemingly innocuous events can cause a lawyer to lose sight of who it is that she represents.
Families usually mean well, but by talking “behind the back” of the older client, we undermine the relationship of trust. This conduct also might give the relatives a sense of control over the lawyer. Erin decided to wait until the client came in. She got the client’s permission to talk with the daughter, and had the conversation in front of her client.
To learn more about ethical issues in elder law, see the clinic’s resource page.
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Posted: January 14th, 2015
A few years ago, the Elder Law Clinic helped a married couple prepare their wills and powers of attorney. While the couple got along fine at the time, the clinic student still found it wise to explain what we would do if they ever had conflicting goals or interests or the like. The student further spelled our policy out in a letter, explaining that how “joint representation” works: we do not keep secrets between members of a couple.
Fast-forward to today, and the couple is not getting along. They each asked for private meetings with Heidi Muller and explained that they might separate. They said that they wanted to cancel their powers of attorney. Heidi explained that we no longer can represent them because of the conflict of interest.
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Heidi Muller met with a client and her granddaughter.
Posted: January 14th, 2015
