Dana Walsh Sivak Featured in April and May Issues of Wolters Kluwer’s Of Counsel
Falcon Rappaport & Berkman’s Dana Walsh Sivak, Esq., Partner and Co-Chair of the Elder Law Practice Group, is prominently featured in the April and May issues of Wolters Kluwer's Of Counsel: The Legal Practice and Management Report. Within the articles, Dana provides readers with insightful knowledge on various aspects of the legal profession and shares profound stories from her own practice.
In the article “A Confluence of Factors Keep Elder Law Attorneys Hopping", published in Of Counsel's April edition, an essential topic of discussion centers around the unprecedented rise in demand for Elder Law and Estate Planning practitioners during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 lockdown had a significant impact on elderly individuals, prompting them to prioritize their long-overdue estate planning activities, bringing “the thought of ‘finally getting around to their estate planning’ to the forefront,” Dana states.
As a follow-up to April's release, Dana provides further legal insights and background about her professional experience in the article "Looking Ahead: 2023 Priorities" featured in the May issue of Of Counsel. She outlines the fundamental characteristics that are imperative for those practicing elder law, and the challenges of hiring elder law attorneys. According to Dana, some of those characteristics are innate: “Those practicing elder law must have a certain emotional IQ, an X-factor of sorts, to serve their clients effectively … You can't teach people those things."
Dana also shares insightful details about the intersection between her elder law practice and her other area of focus, cannabis law – highlighting the growing demand for cannabis in the elderly population, its medicinal use in treating many geriatric medical conditions, and the obstacles that stand in the way of some elderly individuals using medical cannabis. The ongoing stigma around cannabis "prevents a lot of older people from considering what could be a great treatment option for them," Dana explains. “It saddens me that a lot of older people could be enjoying an enhanced quality of life, but don’t consider cannabis because of societal pressures or because they think it’s ‘taboo’ to use, even as medicine.”
Read the full issues of Of Counsel below to learn more about Dana’s significant contributions to Elder Law:
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DISCLAIMER: This summary is not legal advice and does not create any attorney-client relationship. This summary does not provide a definitive legal opinion for any factual situation. Before the firm can provide legal advice or opinion to any person or entity, the specific facts at issue must be reviewed by the firm. Before an attorney-client relationship is formed, the firm must have a signed engagement letter with a client setting forth the Firm’s scope and terms of representation. The information contained herein is based upon the law at the time of publication.