The Four Core Values

While Elder Law is a unique specialty in the legal profession, Elder Law attorneys embrace the four ethical values that are the heart of their professional conduct: competence, communication, confidences and loyalty.

It is hard for many people to believe that lawyers have core values, let alone ethics, what with the bashing of the legal profession. Just in the last few years, the cynical, even negative swell against lawyers has risen to the level of a national past time. As the butt of jokes on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, or the target of ridicule on Late Night with David Letterman, lawyers and lawyering often are center stage. There are ample sources for pithy sound bites and crude depictions. If the ethics of any culture are found in its stories and narratives, then the legal profession better look out. The stories and narratives paint pictures that depict too many lawyers violating what our society knows is right. The moral of countless stories or narratives is that lawyers are respected about as much as used car salesmen!

The reality is the great majority of lawyers apply the legal profession’s core values when serving clients. However, little is written about them. The reality is also, that there are a small minority of lawyers caught violating legal ethics and ignoring core values. Too often, the lead sound bites on TV and the newspaper headlines create the illusion that these lawyers are the majority.

The general exception is when the lawyer is yours. Most people believe that their lawyers are competent, have communicated well with them, continually protect their confidences and are loyal to them.

The Four Core Values Applied:

1.     Competence. Elder Law attorneys assure their competence by maintaining their continued education, gaining board certification in elder law as Certified Elder Law Attorneys (“CELA”) or achieving specialization through the North Carolina Bar Association as estate and trust lawyers.

2.     Communication. Elder Law attorneys go to great lengths to maintain timely contact and communication with clients, including the habit of returning calls within 24 hours, and copying clients on all correspondence related to them.

3.     Confidences. Elder Law attorneys protect confidential information of their clients, giving out no confidential information without the client’s expressed permission, unless in circumstances of great harm to the client. Usually, Elder Law attorneys send a written letter of engagement to their clients and specifically confirm those to whom the clients allow the communication of confidential information.

4.     Loyalty. Elder Law attorneys most always tell their clients that their loyalties are directed solely to the client being served. When there are multiple clients (like husband, wife and children), then this requires Elder Law attorneys to know and understand who their clients are from the very beginning.

    
If you and your family are about to see a lawyer, then be sure to ask for an explanation of the core values of lawyering and how those values will be delivered to you if the lawyer is hired.