It was around 1991, when Shirley Berger Whitenack was asked by the firm where she worked if she'd like to get involved in elder law. It was an emerging practice area at the time, and Whitenack, an estates and trusts litigator, decided to give it a try.

It was a decision that would alter her career and the lives of her clients, and lead to changes in New Jersey's guardianship law.

“Sometimes when one door closes, another one opens. I am deeply grateful for the path I chose in elder and special needs law and helping those in need,” Whitenack said.

On Sept. 16, Whitenack, a New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) trustee and a partner at Schenck, Price, Smith and King in Florham Park, will be one of two recipients to receive the 2019 Medal of Honor, the highest honor awarded by the New Jersey State Bar Foundation (NJSBF). Ralph J. Lamparello, managing partner at Chasan, Lamparello, Mallon and Cappuzzo in Secaucus, will also receive the award.

The Medal of Honor is given each year to those who have made exemplary contributions to improving the justice system and enhancing New Jersey's legal legacy. Whitenack, an expert on elder and special needs law, has won numerous awards and is a frequent lecturer for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education. In 2017, Whitenack received the Alfred C. Clapp Award for Excellence in Legal Education.

“Shirley Berger Whitenack is a consummate elder and special needs attorney and an approved mediator for the state of New Jersey who has devoted her life to improving the justice system in New Jersey,” said Norberto A. Garcia, president of the NJSBF. “The foundation is pleased to recognize her with its highest honor.”

First to go to college

Whitenack grew up in the Bronx, the daughter of immigrants. Her father survived Auschwitz and her mother hid in Belgium during World War II. “We didn't have a lot of money growing up,” she said. Still, Whitenack came home from kindergarten one day and informed her parents they needed to save $1 a week so she could attend college. They took her seriously, and she proved to be an excellent student. She did well in high school and graduated at 16, and although no one in her family had gone to college she was determined to be the first.

Shaped by their war experience, her parents were overprotective and did not want her to venture far, so Whitenack graduated from nearby State University of New York at Stony Brook at 20, with a bachelor's degree in English

Law school was not immediately on her radar. It was a different time, Whitenack said, and she followed her parents' traditional wishes that she get married, have children and get a teaching degree, if needed.

Nearly a decade later, she was faced with raising two young children as a single mother, and realized she needed to be self-sufficient. Intrigued by the law during a stint as a real estate agent, she applied to Seton Hall Law School and was admitted through early decision. Whitenack threw herself into her studies, served as an editor on law review and graduated cum laude.

A passion for elder and special needs law

After clerking for Superior Court Judge Melvin P. Antell, she worked for Hannoch Weisman in Roseland and made partner after six years. She began as a commercial litigator, representing Fortune 100 companies, and segued into trusts and estates and then elder and disability law. Whitenack said the more elder and special needs cases she worked on, the more she liked it. The work was varied and intellectually satisfying, and involved a team of people, from case managers to financial advisors, all with the goal of helping the client.

Whitenack said she felt good assisting people who were often in crisis situations, such as adult children who wanted to help their ill parents who'd never executed a power of attorney or advance directive, or someone who was disabled after a stroke or a severe accident and needed to take care of young children.

“I discovered I could do well as an attorney, but also do good by representing the elderly and people with special needs,” she said.

She felt an immediate affinity with attorneys at the NJSBA who practiced in elder and special needs law, whom she said were friendly, welcoming and collaborative.

Guardianship work

Whitenack has been deeply involved in the association, the foundation and the institute. She is a past president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and has served as an adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law.

During her career, she has been focused on reforming New Jersey's guardianship laws. As a leader in the association's Elder and Disability Law Section she helped update and draft new statutes and testified in front of the state Legislature over the course of seven years, until a revised law was passed in 2005.

“Most of the focus on the guardianship statutes at that time dealt with guardianship of the property. We focused on guardianship of the person and caregiving issues. We tried to incorporate modern theories of guardianship at that time,” she said.

Whitenack was also a co-author on an NJSBA amicus brief that argued adult children who serve as legal guardians should be able to transfer their parents' assets to themselves to hasten their parents' eligibility for Medicaid.

Her friends and peers say she is a passionate advocate and fierce litigator who is also compassionate and caring.

Thomas D. Begley Jr., an attorney with Begley Law Group in Moorestown, has known and admired Whitenack for 30 years, and called her “a pioneer in the field” and an extraordinary lawyer and person.

“She has always been willing to share her knowledge and expertise with colleagues, and even her competitors,” Begley said.

Thomas L. Weisenbeck, a former assignment judge of the Morris and Sussex vicinage and mediator/arbitrator, said Whitenack “never takes an unreasonable position,” which he noted is helpful in resolving cases.

Whitenack imagined she would be a litigator after law school, but after she discovered a passion for elder and special needs law, she said, she “felt satisfied that I was making a real difference in the lives of people.”