By JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

Because it touches on many legal practice areas, the field of elder law is hard to define.

Just ask the field's practitioners, who sometimes struggle to give clients and prospects a pithy explanation of what they handle.

"It's like being a general-practice lawyer but focusing on the needs of older people," said Bruce Reinoso, a partner at Magavern Magavern Grimm LLP. "It is having this special sensitivity to the needs and opportunities that older people and their families are confronted with."

With an aging baby-boomer population facing numerous issues, from estate planning to confusing Medicaid changes and an increasing life expectancy that will encourage long-term care insurance, elder-law practice continues to grow and evolve.

"It's a booming business with a high demand," Reinoso said. "It will only increase."

The sum of many parts

The practice encompasses many different legal practice areas, including trusts and estates, tax, insurance, real estate and health care.

There are times, said Charles Beinhauer of Pfalzgraf Beinhauer & Menzies LLP, that these different issues "are at odds with each other."

"We assist families with what's the better route at the time," he said. "You really have to keep your hand on the pulse of the family, (because) as things change, we may have to change."

Pfalzgraf Beinhauer & Menzies is the only law firm in Buffalo that bills itself as an elder-law firm. Half of its practice is in trusts and estates, the other half in various other areas of elder law. The partners say the firm's business has doubled since they formed the practice three years ago.

"It's grown dramatically for us," Beinhauer said of firm, which counts two partners, three associates, three Medicaid paralegals and two real estate paralegals on its staff. Firm co-founder David Pfalzgraf has retired.

Because the elder-law practice is "time- and labor-intensive," Beinhauer says, its practitioners need to keep abreast of ever-changing laws such as the Medicaid Deficit Reduction Act.

"What has happened is, (many lawyers) who dabbled in elder law left the practice because it was too difficult for them. You have to be good at this," said firm partner Laurie Menzies.

"There's more of a need to get a broad base of knowledge in those areas," agreed Amherst solo practitioner Mark Walling. "Not only is it more complicated for the families, but it's more complicated for attorneys to give advice. It's a demanding area to keep on top of."

To set itself apart from other firms that practice elder law, Pfalzgraf Beinhauer hired a geriatric care manager, Bev Kubala, a licensed nurse who helps clients find the best fit of elder-care services.

"Clients come in thinking a lawyer can answer all their questions, but now we have someone" who can, Menzies said.

On the horizon

One would need a crystal ball to try to predict how the elder-law field will evolve, but practitioners say elder fraud and abuse will become the practice area's next big focus.

"As the population ages, more people than ever will have trouble dealing with the complexities of society," Walling said. "So the potential for unscrupulous people to commit fraud on the elderly will continue to increase."

On the converse, Reinoso noted, attorneys will also need to represent those people accused of fraud.

"We'll have to help protect adult children who have been wrongly accused of elder abuse," he said. "If (someone) is investigated by adult protective services, it's like not having all your civil rights. It's a very scary thing."

And as people live longer, they'll look to long-term care insurance to protect their life savings from rapidly being eaten up by nursing-home costs. With that will come insurance claim disputes and litigation.

Even as those potential conflicts and disputes loom, all of the elder law practitioners interviewed said they enjoy helping seniors to live their golden years comfortably.

"I get to go home at the end of the day feeling like I actually helped people," Reinoso said.