About
The purpose of the Academy of Special Needs Planners is to assist special needs attorneys in providing the highest quality service and advice to individuals with special needs and to their families. In addition to providing its member attorneys with up-to-date information on legal developments nationwide and a forum for exchanging best practices, the Academy provides information to consumers through this web site and its monthly e-mail newsletter.
On this site, we aim to provide the best information available on the Internet on planning for people with special needs as well as access to a network of attorneys focusing their practices on special needs planning.
Our information is designed to be thorough, up-to-date and easy to understand. The attorneys in our network have demonstrated a commitment to assisting those with special needs and their families. And they benefit from the experience and expertise of their peers through our Internet-based practice tools.
| Management Team |
|
Harry Margolis, Vincent Russo, Diedre Wachbrit Braverman, Ken Coughlin, Mark Miller |
| Advisory Board Members |
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A Frank Johns, Ira Wiesner, Michael Gilfix, David Lillesand, Tim Nay, Cynthia Sharp Myers |
Management Team
Harry S. Margolis, co-founder. An elder law attorney since 1987, Mr. Margolis is also the founder and president of ElderLawAnswers and the founder and managing attorney of Margolis & Associates, a law firm specializing in elder law based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the editor of The ElderLaw Report and The ElderLaw Portfolio Series and author of the ElderLaw Forms Manual. Mr. Margolis is a fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and has been a member of the adjunct faculty of Boston College Law School.
Vincent J. Russo, co-founder. Mr. Russo is the managing shareholder of Vincent J. Russo & Associates, P.C., Long Island's Signature Elder Law, Special Needs and Estate Planning Law Firm with offices in Westbury, Islandia, Woodbury and Lido Beach, New York. Vincent Russo has championed the rights of seniors and people with special needs since 1985.
Diedre Wachbrit Braverman is a graduate of Stanford Law School where she was Chair of the Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance, she is also a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of University of California, Irvine magna cum laude. She has been Certified by the California Board of Legal Specialization in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law. Prior to opening her law practice, Diedre was a Senior Associate at the international consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, where she provided strategic business advice to some of the nation's largest and best-known firms.
Diedre serves on the Board as a Director of PAUSE 4 Kids, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping kids with special needs to grow. She is a member of the Advisory Board, The Computer Access Center, Los Angeles, California. Diedre is a co-author of the Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB)'s forthcoming book on Special Needs Planning.
Diedre teaches continuing education courses for Wealth Counsel, Lorman, PESI and the National Business Instutute, national providers of legal education. She is also a teaching fellow at the Southern California Institute and has provided educational workshops and seminars for Amgen, La Leche League International, and Mothers & More.
Diedre also authors two blogs, one on estate planning, asset protection and taxes (http://wachbrit.typepad.com/); the other on special needs planning (http://wachbrit.typepad.com/special_needs_planning/).
Ken Coughlin, editorial director. Mr. Coughlin brings 29 years of publishing experience to the Academy of Special Needs Planners . He is editorial director of the Web site ElderLawAnswers and has been the Managing Editor of The ElderLaw Report since 1992. Before joining the Academy of Special Needs Planners, Mr. Coughlin was Editorial Director of Faulkner & Gray's Healthcare Information Center, a publishing unit of Thomson Financial, where his responsibilities included the production of several CD-ROM publications.
Mark Miller, director of operations and business development. Mr. Miller's responsibilities include managing member recruitment and retention, marketing, product development and customer service. Mr. Miller brings more than 15 years of experience in sales and business development for web-based service providers. Past projects have included consulting for McDonald Investments (division of KeyCorp.), Director of Technology Partnership for Food.com and executing web development or licensing agreements with companies such as Noggin (Viacom), FoxFamily, The Discovery Channel and LEGO.
Advisory Board Members
A Frank Johns:
A. Frank Johns, JD, CELA, RG, is a nationally recognized legal authority in Elder Law, Guardianship,
Disability Rights, Special Needs Trusts and Legal Ethics. Mr. Johns, BS ’68 and JD ‘
71 Florida State University, is a charter partner in Booth Harrington & Johns, LLP with offices in
Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina. He is past President of and a Fellow in the National
Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and currently sits as chair of NAELA’s Council of Advanced
Practitioners. He is Board Certified in Elder Law by the National Elder Law Foundation and a
Registered Guardian. He was a charter Board member of the National Guardianship Association, and
is also a fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC); charter chair of the
North Carolina Bar Association Elder Law Section; and charter associate of the Society of Settlement
Planners. He created and co-chaired Wingspan - the Second National Guardianship Conference (2001).
He is a frequent speaker on Guardianship, Elder Law, Special Needs Trusts and legal ethics, presenting
on local, state and national levels, including four annual lectures at the NYU Tax Institute, and at the
Duke University Estate Planning Conference. He is a well-published author, most recently co-author
of the second edition of Counseling Older Clients (ALI/ABA 2005). He has also written
numerous law review articles, articles for national legal publications, including Trial Magazine
and Trust&Estates; he is past editor of the NAELA Quarterly and currently on the
NAELA Journal Editorial Board. He currently serves on the Boards of the Western Carolina
Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association (current sitting president), Senior Resources of Guilford, the
Charlotte Mecklenburg Seniors Centers, Tristan’s Quest – Advocacy for Children with Mental
Illness and the Corporation of Guardianship, Inc. Mr. Johns has recently been named Chair of the
Advisory Committee of the New Masters of Gerontology/MBA Dual Degree Program at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro where he is a visiting associate professor.
Ira Wiesner:
Mr. Wiesner is a nationally recognized elder law attorney. He is
a former President of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Having a legal
practice rooted in 17 years of traditional estate and tax planning, Mr. Wiesner, who
is Florida Bar Board Certified in Taxation and Elder Law, devotes a significant
portion of his practice to sophisticated estate planning. However, the principal
commitment and focus of his practice is on resolving the legal needs of the elderly
and their families.
He is one of a select group of attorneys nationwide who has been
honored as a Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys in recognition of
his work in advancing the legal needs of seniors. His involvement ranges from
counseling on planning for incapacity, asset preservation and guardianship, to
redressing abuse, exploitation and resident's rights issues.
Mr. Wiesner was an invitee to the 1995 White House Conference on
Aging and has consulted with the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative
Services and the Agency for health care Administration on legislative matters. In
addition to devoting a significant portion of his law practice to the legal needs of
the elderly, Mr. Wiesner assists families with planning for the needs and protection
of disabled and dysfunctional children.
Michael Gilfix:
Michael Gilfix is a nationally known authority in the field of law, aging and estate
planning. A 1973 graduate of Stanford Law School, he is a Fellow of the National
Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), a co-founder of NAELA, and a Certified Legal
Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law. Mr. Gilfix regularly addresses
professional audiences, including attorneys, physicians, certified public
accountants, and financial planners, nationally as well as locally.
An entrepreneur in the legal field, Mr. Gilfix created the first legal aid program
for elders in 1973. He served as Executive Director of that program, Senior Adults
Legal Assistance (SALA) of Santa Clara County, for ten years. In 1983 he created the
law firm that is today known as Gilfix & La Poll Associates LLP .
Mr. Gilfix is a California legal advisor to Partnership For Caring, the national
organization devoted to rights of individuals to make their own health care
decisions.
Mr. Gilfix holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, as judged by his peers in the
legal profession. This rating, the highest given "... reflects an attorney who has
reached the heights of professional excellence, ... has practiced law for many years,
and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity."
David Lillesand:
David J. Lillesand is the principal of Lillesand & Wolasky PL, attorneys with offices in North
and South Florida, in Gainesville and in Miami, Florida. The firm represents disabled children, adults
and their families in Social Security/SSI disability claims, Medicaid, Special Needs Trusts,
Guardianship and Estate Planning matters.
David graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1966 with a degree in Political Behavior, and the
University of Wisconsin Law School in 1972, and began representing individuals with SSI disability
claims in 1974. He has been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, South America, a domestic volunteer
in the VISTA program working with migrant farm-worker families in Laredo, Texas, and spent seven years
in Legal Services programs in New Jersey and Florida, including two years as Executive Director of
Florida Rural Legal Services.
Since beginning private practice in 1979, he has been a frequent lecturer for state and national
Continuing Legal Education programs in the areas of Social Security disability, SSI, special needs
trusts, guardianship, and legal and financial planning for disabled children and adults. He received
the ARC’s Plotkin Outstanding Legal Service Award for service to mentally retarded citizens, is a
three-time recipient of the Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year Award from the South-Miami Kendall Bar
Association, and received the Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award for the Eleventh
Judicial Circuit.
He has been President of his two local bar associations, chairman of the South Florida Council on
Divorce Mediation, and President of Guardianship and Case Management Services, Inc.
David is trilingual, speaking English, Spanish and POMS. He has been married for 36 years to Dr.
Diane V. Lillesand, a recently retired clinical and forensic psychologist and now fulltime Ph.D.
graduate student in Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Florida, Gainesville. They have one daughter,
Jessica, a graduate of Duke University and a recent graduate of the University of Florida Law School.
Tim Nay:
Tim has combined decades of clinical social work experience and legal expertise to develop an insightful,
innovative and people-friendly approach to assisting his clients. He is the founding President of the National
Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and was recognized in 1992 as a Fellow of the Academy.
Tim is a past President of the Oregon Gerontological Association, past Chair and founding member of the Elder
Law Section of the Oregon State Bar and past President of the Oregon Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
He is past Chair, Amicus Brief Committee-National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (2003-2006) and also a member
of the Medicaid Task Force-National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (2003-present).
He is a founding member and past secretary of the National Alliance of Medicare Set Aside Professionals. Tim is a
member of the Oregon State Bar and the Washington State Bar Association. He is also a member of the Advisory
Boards of the Academy of Special Needs Planners and the Society of Settlement Planners. Tim was the recipient
of the 2007 Unaward of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
Cynthia Sharp Myers:
Cynthia practices estate planning and elder law at her law offices located in Haddon Heights and
Lawrenceville, New Jersey. She is admitted to the bar in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of
Columbia. Cynthia is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the New Jersey State Bar
Association and its Elder Law Section, where she serves as Secretary, the Camden County Bar Association
and its Committee on Elderly; she is also Secretary of the Estate and Financial Planning Council of South
Jersey. She has served as the Legislative Coordinator and Co-editor of the newsletter for the New Jersey
State Bar Association's Elder Law Section and the Borough of Haddon Heights Coordinator of the Camden
County Office of Aging. She is immediate past President of the Alzheimer's Association South Jersey Chapter
and is now Chair of the Development Committee. She was a staff member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee
under Senator Robert Dole from 1980 to 1981. Ms. Myers received her B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Ball
State University, her J.D. degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and her LL.M. degree in
taxation from New York University School of Law.
Disclaimer
The Academy of Special Needs Planners provides legal information, not legal advice. Our information explains general legal concepts and principles that may or may not be applicable to a particular person's situation. The Academy of Special Needs Planners is not a law firm, does not give legal advice and no attorney-client relationship exists between the site and any user.
The Academy of Special Needs Planners makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to this site. Because legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each client case, and laws are constantly changing, nothing should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.
If you require legal advice, we encourage you to retain an attorney from our directory and to develop an attorney-client relationship with that attorney or firm.
