A Busy CLE Week

Last week was a busy week for CLE in Elder Law World.  In Orlando, U of Miami School of Law just completed the multi-day 48th Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning.  This is a unique conference for a number of reasons, one of which is its “own” TV channel at the hotel, to allow registrants to watch sessions from their hotel rooms, as well as simulcasts in the lobby areas of the conference center.  Robert Fleming presented a general session on Representing Clients with Diminishing Capacity: What to Know and How to Bridge the Gap and then presented a  break-out session with me on Public Benefits 101.  The most frequent topic of questions we got during this breakout was on Social Security. It’s nice to see elder law topics being included (as they have done for a few years now) at this conference.

Overlapping with the end of Heckerling, also in Orlando, was the three-day CLE for the Elder Law Section of the Florida Bar.  The first day was focused on Elder Law Essentials for new attorneys and paralegals and the following two days on the section’s annual update and certification review.

Orlando wasn’t the only location for cutting edge CLE in Elder Law World.  NAELA had its last UnProgram Plus in Grapevine, Texas. For those of you unfamiliar with the UnProgram, the website explains:

The UnProgram is a forum for you to talk about what is important to you — with your peers. There are no lecturers or teachers, only experienced moderators. There is no established agenda, only an innovative design to promote discussion that promotes learning through idea sharing and collaboration. You will gain real-life examples of how others have mastered these situations.

Next year NAELA is launching the NAELA Summit in January that will build on the successes of the UnProgram and emphasize more learning by doing for those attending.

It looks like 2014 is going to be a robust year for elder law CLE!