Certification as an elder
law attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation (NELF)
requires an attorney to demonstrate significant knowledge and
experience in the vast aspects of elder law.
An attorney applying for
CELA certification must have been in practice for a minimum of
five years. He or she must have devoted a minimum of sixteen
hours per week within the past three years to the practice of
elder law. The attorney must also demonstrate thorough
knowledge in thirteen different substantive areas of the law
affecting the elderly and persons with disabilities. The areas
are:
•health and personal care
planning
•pre-mortem legal planning
•fiduciary representation
•legal capacity counseling
•public benefits advice
•advice on insurance matters
•resident rights advocacy
•housing counseling
•income, estate and gift tax
advice
•employment and retirement
advice
•counseling about tort
claims against nursing homes
•age or disability
discrimination claims
•litigation or
administrative advocacy related to the above matters
There is a comprehensive
one-day, closed book, written examination covering those areas
of practice. The test is so difficult that the pass rate is
only about 60%.
The attorney must show that
he or she has attended at least 45 hours of continuing legal
education in elder law during the last three years. Five
attorney references are required. Re-certification is required
every five years to ensure the attorney’s skills are current.
For an overview of
certification, please visit the National Academy of Elder Law
Attorneys website at:
http://www.naela.com/professionals/certification.htm. For
more information on the NELF requirements for certification,
please visit:
http://www.nelf.org/qualsumm.htm.
NELF’s
certification program for CELAs has
be accredited by the American Bar
Association (ABA). For more information on the ABA
accreditation standards and requirements for a certification
program, please visit:
http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/specialization/standard.html.
