Associate Attorney, Elder Law & Medicaid Planning

The job in one paragraph

Families come to this practice at a hard moment, usually with a parent who needs care and a pile of questions nobody has answered straight. You are the person who sits with them, works out what is actually possible, and builds the plan. The matters are yours from beginning to end — long term care and asset protection strategy, Medicaid eligibility and applications, trusts and estates, special needs planning, and Article 81 guardianship work when it comes up. You handle the moderately complex ones independently, with a department chair to consult rather than a queue to clear.

What you would actually be doing

• Counseling clients and their families. Long term care planning, nursing home and community Medicaid, asset transfers, exempt resources, pooled trusts, and what eligibility genuinely requires. Often with adult children in the room and a lot of feeling in it.
• Building the plan. Customized asset preservation and wealth protection strategies, drawn from a real read of someone's income, assets, trusts and transfers.
• Drafting. Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care proxies, living wills, supplemental needs trusts, caregiver agreements and the rest of the planning file.
• Medicaid and public benefits applications. Prepared and managed through to determination, including the follow up nobody enjoys and everybody needs.
• Court and hearings. Pleadings, motions, briefs, petitions and agreements, plus hearings, conferences, mediations and Article 81 guardianship proceedings when required.
• Research and recommendations. Elder law, public benefits, estate planning, trust administration and guardianship questions, researched properly and answered clearly.
• Growing the practice. Community outreach, educational seminars and the referral relationships elder law actually runs on: healthcare providers, care managers, financial professionals and the firm's own network.

What you need to be considered

• A Juris Doctor from an accredited law school.
• Admission to the New York State Bar, in good standing.
• The temperament this work asks for: patience, and genuine compassion with elderly clients and the families around them.
• Strong drafting and proofreading, and the organization to run a caseload against competing deadlines.

What moves you up the list

None of this is required. It is what will make the firm want to talk to you sooner.

• Medicaid application experience. Preparing and managing them start to determination, community or chronic care.
• Asset protection planning. Trusts, transfers, exempt resources and pooled trusts, and the five year look back in practice rather than in theory.
• Guardianship work. Article 81 proceedings in particular.
• Special needs planning. Supplemental needs trusts and the benefits questions that sit around them.
• Relationships in the community. Care managers, financial advisors, skilled nursing and assisted living contacts. In elder law these are most of the practice.

The details

How this works from here

1. You send your resume

   Use the form below. It takes about two minutes and it goes straight to Jamie, not into a queue.

2. Jamie calls you

   A real conversation about what you have done, what you are looking for, and whether this seat is honestly a fit. If it is not, he will tell you that instead of wasting your time.

3. He presents you to the firm

   With context, not just a resume attachment. You will know exactly who you are being sent to before he sends you.

4. You interview, and you get prepped first

   You will know who is in the room, what they care about, and what they have passed on other people for. Then you get honest feedback either way.

Apply for this role

Resume plus four fields. Jamie reads every one of these himself.