I learned a lot in law school – things I use every day like how to draft a trust or how property passes without a will, and things I don’t use ever, like the Commerce Clause. But every so often, I think that there should be a few additional classes for students going in to the practice of elder law and estate planning. I have learned these things over the years, but in the beginning I often wished they had been taught in school. Here are some of my class suggestions:
Wheelchairs 101: In this practical class learn how to disassemble and fold up a client’s wheelchair and wrangle it into the trunk of their car. Final exam will take place outside, in the rain.
Hospital Hygiene: For those emergency estate plan signings at the hospital with immune-compromised client learn how to scrub-up, gown-up and conduct a signing while wearing latex gloves in between medical exams. Extra credit project: flagging down busy hospital staff to serve as witnesses.
Interior Design for Attorneys: Learn how to design and decorate your office so that it is easily accessible by folks in wheelchairs, walkers or people walking 3 across (one on each arm). Design a childproof office with some quiet things to keep the child visitor amused. Final exam scavenger hunt to find the following items: reading glasses, lap desk, fat pens, and an extra lamp.
Other things I wish they had taught us, but that aren’t so easy to learn in school: how to deal with client’s deaths, which come often in an elder law practice; how to feel comfortable walking into a nursing home, rehabilitation hospital or the bedroom of a client who cannot get out of bed but needs to see their attorney; what to do when someone cries in your office or lashes out at you in their grief, and how to gently suggest to someone that maybe the best solution to their problem doesn’t involve the legal system. These I just learn as I go along, and am honored when I get the chance to do so.
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