I am pleased to be joining Kim Dayton and Rebecca Morgan, two colleagues I respect deeply for their many and diverse contributions to “Elder Law,” still a relatively young field, despite the name. 

I came to Elder Law from clinical teaching experiences, starting with a post as a visiting faculty member at University of New Mexico School of Law.  One of my early experiences there, working to recover funds and property for an older Hispanic who had been “helped” out of his life savings by a not-so-well-meaning agent, was my introduction to the strengths and weaknesses of planning tools, such as Powers of Attorney.  A few years after moving to The Dickinson School of Law, even before its evolution into Penn State Law, I began operating an Elder Law and Consumer Protection Clinic.  The Clinic operated as a partnership of students and practicing lawyers in central Pennsylvania and together we handled a broad array of issues, including long-term care, health care, planning, debt-management, housing, and financing issues. 

My 10+ years of clinic experiences helped to shape a book, The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation, published in 2011, which I wrote with a former student and Clinic staff attorney, Trish Cowart, who is now a lawyer in New York City, who continues to work in elder law, although her role is representation of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.  (We need good people on ALL sides of tough issues!)   Along the way, I’ve also gained a few areas of special interest, including financial implications of long-term care, such as the use of filial support laws by nursing homes to cover costs of care and the operation of Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs).  I look forward to sharing blogging duties with Kim and Becky. 

– Katherine C Pearson, Professor of Law, Penn State Law