Build a legal career in one of the hottest 21st century employment areas!
In his 21st Century Legal Career Series, Richard L. Hermann researches, evaluates, and predicts where the employment opportunities are and will be for law graduates.
Volume 17, Elder Law: Riding the Age Wave, spotlights a practice area often overlooked or deemed slow-moving and stodgy by legal career seekers. Not anymore. That all changed on January 1, 2011, when the first Baby Boomer turned 65. Baby Boom demographics are unprecedented. Beginning in 2011 and not ending until 2029, 80 million have, are, and will turn 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day every day. That's a lot of potential clients.
This most populous and prosperous generation ever is now confronting both the health and financial issues attendant upon age. And demand for elder law advice and legal services is not exclusive to seniors. The potential client pool also includes millions of Generation Xers and Millennials concerned about their senior relatives' financial, care giving, quality of life, and succession issues.
Elder Law focuses on the growing epidemic of financial fraud targeting older Americans, which costs seniors an estimated $2.9 billion annually. Elder financial abuse is where financial services meet social services. It is also where legal practitioners can hop on board an emerging, highly remunerative practice area that is creating legal and JD-Advantage jobs throughout the nation.
Highlights include:
• Defining "Elder Law"
• The Astonishing Numbers
• Elder Financial Abuse: the fastest-growing and most "monetizable" practice subspecialty
• Why Is Elder Law Hot?
• Where the Jobs Are
• JD-Advantage Job Opportunities
• Positioning Yourself for an Elder Law Job
• Compensation
• Advance Notice of Elder Law Job Opportunities
• The Future
Despite the ravages of the Great Recession, Boomers are aging up blessed with more wealth than any other generation in history. The average net worth of 65-and-over U.S. households is more than $200,000, triple that of any other age cohort and by far the highest in history. This massive senior population is served by almost 90,000 residential and other institutions, including assisted living facilities, nursing homes, home healthcare agencies, retirement homes, hospitals, dialysis centers, adult day care facilities, hospices, and senior centers, among other service providers.
Hermann provides a guide to the Elder Law practice area, which is gaining prominence, and producing career opportunities in law firms of all sizes as well as financial services companies and governments at all levels.