The Senex | No.8
Wiser Older (Hu)man
By: Jeremy L. Pryor Esq. | March 15, 2019
Dear Reader—
 
We want to ask you for your help. We do our best to have our ear to the ground and keep you up to date on all things elder law related each week, but we know that we cannot cover every development or story of interest. We also know that through this network we are in dialogue with people with much greater knowledge of the topics we attempt to write about here. We would thus ask that if you come across a story or news item that you think would be worth highlighting, you pass it along our way. We can’t promise we’ll include it, but we can promise that if we do, we’ll make sure to acknowledge you. Our thanks in advance.
 
Earlier this week Governor Northam signed a bill that will allow multi-disciplinary response teams coordinated by local Virginia Departments of Social Services to address the growing problem of elder abuse. Chuck Slemp, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Wise County, has been a passionate advocate for this legislation since last year, and helps explain some of the reasons for the bill’s introduction here . Given how difficult it has been historically for the Commonwealth to criminally prosecute these cases, we are hopeful that the new law will give local law enforcement the tools it needs to better protect some of our more vulnerable citizens from fraud, exploitation, and abuse.
 
This story is at once personal and universal. Being lawyers (otherwise known as people prone to overly enjoy the sound of their own voices), we’d never have thought that the key advice for being a great mentor is simply “showing up and shutting up,” but it certainly made complete sense once we reflected on our mentors over the years. We’re sincerely confident that none of us would be enjoying even a modest amount of success without the efforts of our mentors. And while conventional wisdom teaches that the younger generation needs the wisdom of their elders, recent studies suggest that the benefits of being a mentor may accrue more to the mentor than the mentee.
 
One of our mentors was Phoebe Hall . Phoebe sadly passed away in January of this year, but her legacy did not. In many ways our elder law practice reflects ideals and values she imparted to us. We’ll always be grateful for her efforts to guide us as young elder law attorneys, and hope that we can give as much back to others as she gave to us. If we can be of service to you or your clients, please let us know.
 
Happy Friday,
 
Jeremy
About The Senex
Carrell Blanton Ferris & Associates’ weekly update on aging, wisdom , and the law   | Edited by Jeremy L. Pryor, Chair of the firm’s Elder Law Section