Penn State/Dickinson Law School and Elder Law

Each monthly issue of the electronic newsletter, Alumni Connection, sent to graduates of The Dickinson School of Law of the Penn State University (generally now known as Penn State Law) includes a link to a legal blog. The September, 2011 issue includes a link to this PA Elder, Estate & Fiduciary Law Blog.  

Such a selection shows consistency between this Blog's focus, and the past and present involvement of PSU/DSL in elder law study, research, and clinic practice.

For example, on Tuesday, September 27, 2011, according to a Press Release entitled "Professor Pearson to speak on preventing elder abuse", Professor Katherine C. Pearson will visit the Penn State School of Nursing (and its Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing at Penn State) to present a lecture, "Beware of Befrienders: Analyzing Roles for Professionals in Helping Older Adults Avoid Financial Abuse.

When an elderly person is caught in the snares of financial abuse, a professional such as a nurse, physician, banker, or attorney can only provide help if he or she knows what to look for and what to do when elder abuse is suspected. * * *

“This is a rare opportunity to speak with an experienced elder law attorney and better understand this important issue, which has become an enormous problem for older adults in recent years,” said Patricia Webb, project administrator at the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing at Penn State, which is sponsoring the event.

“Financial abuse can be a complex interdisciplinary problem. We would shortchange vulnerable people by addressing this problem through the eyes of just one profession,” said Professor Pearson, who is a scholar of legal issues facing older adults and focuses on interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to elder care.

Beyond teaching law school courses on elder law, she is well-qualified to discuss elder abuse. For example:

• She co-wrote a book on financial elder abuse, published early in 2011.  See: "Professors Co-Author Book on the Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation"; and PA EE&F Law Blog posting New Book: "The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation" (01/26/11).
• She testified on July 16, 2010, before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging about "The Importance of Resident Voices in Regulation of Continuing Care Retirement Communities."
• She discussed financial elder abuse on WITF-TV in a personal interview.  See: Professor Pearson discusses the elderly as targets of fraud on WITF-Smart Talk
• She will work with researchers from Northern Ireland and England and lead a year-long study that examines whether the U.S. legal system is meeting the legal advice needs of older adults.  See:  "Do the elderly get the legal advice they need? Professor Pearson works with researchers from the UK to get answers." (07/13/11).

Beyond such faculty involvement, DSL/PSU law students in Carlisle, PA, support the Wills for Heroes Foundation program locally, providing free basic estate and personal planning for first responders and their families.  See: "Wills for Heroes" (10/11).  Students there also offered legal assistance to local senior citizens.  See: "Students Expand Outreach through “Senior Law Day” (02/08).

Most importantly, the Law School has operated its Elder Protection Clinic continuously since 2001.  See:  "Partners in Outreach and Advocacy: Interdisciplinary Opportunities in University-Based Legal Clinics" by Katherine C. Pearson & Lucy Johnston-Walsh, published and posted by the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Volume 11, Number 4, p. 163, (2006).

I've noted the Elder Protection Clinic's periodic Newsletters previously.  See: PA EE&F Law Blog postings PSU-DSL Publishes Its Elder Law Clinic Newsletter (12/19/07) and "Adventures in Law & Aging" -- Spring, 2009 Issue (04/27/09).

As I've said recently, I'm proud to be an alumnus.

Whether anyone will notice the Law School's posting of a link to this particular blog is not important.  It is the Law School's sensitivity to this area of the law -- demonstrated by including such a link -- that is so important.