From the moment you pick up the phone, ethical issues come into play. Your natural instinct is to answer that legal question you are being asked. Be careful!
Ethical dilemmas are a particular concern for elder law attorneys. These concerns are heightened in an elder law practice due to the very nature of the client base. You encounter clients with diminished capacity, clients who do not want to make decisions and try to defer to other family members, and often many family members present at the consultation.
Elder law attorneys also are presented with unique potential conflicts of interest. When the attorney is the scrivener of the documents, can the elder law attorney represent the agent under the POA? What should the attorney do when the agent under the POA wants to file a guardianship action to protect the principal? Handling these delicate potential conflicts of interest are challenging.
Join Rebecca A. Hobbs, certified elder law attorney and ElderCounsel member, as she discusses these and other ethical concerns that face elder law attorneys every day.
1 Ethics CLE
Rebecca A. Hobbs is a Principalwith the law firm O’Donnell, Weiss & Mattei, P.C. with offices in Pottstown and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. She focuses her practice on elder law, special needs planning, estate planning, estate and trust administration, and Veteran’s benefits. Rebecca is Certified as an Elder Law Attorney(CELA)by the National Elder Law Foundation as authorized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Rebecca received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in PoliticalScience from Eastern University. She received her Juris Doctorate from Regent University School of Law. She is licensed to practice in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Rebecca is an accreditedattorney for the preparation, preservation and prosecution of claims for veterans’ benefits before the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2020, 2019, 2018,and 2017 Rebecca was selected for inclusion by the Pennsylvania Super Lawyersas a Rising Star in the field of elder law. As the National Director of ElderLawAnswers, she hosts a monthly Podcast and Webinar on elder lawand marketingtopics. She is an activemember of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and the Pennsylvania Associationof Elder Law Attorneys (PAELA). She is an Editor on the Editorial Board for the NAELA Journal. As a member the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), she serves as a Liaison for the Young Lawyers Divisor to the Elder Law Section Council. Rebecca is also a member of theMontgomery County Bar Association andis a Co-Chair of the Elder Law Committee.