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Elected and Appointed

Constance K. Nelson, an attorney with Gross McGinley, was appointed to the Third Street Alliance for Women and Families board of directors.

Nelson formerly served on the organization's development committee, assisting in the oversight of the organization's fundraising efforts.

She will now serve a more direct leadership role, developing goals and providing direction to the committees and staff.

The Third Street Alliance for Women and Families provides a multitude of programs to Northampton County including shelter services to homeless women and families, an early learning center for children and health classes.

In addition to her new board position with the Alliance, Nelson serves on the Bar Association of Lehigh County's board of directors.

She is also a member of the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Lehigh Valley and for North Penn Legal Services.

Nelson represents local families in divorce and family law matters as well as estate planning and administration.

She is a litigator with a background in handling white-collar crime cases.

She maintains a criminal practice and also volunteers her time assisting individuals with criminal record expungements.

For 13 years Nelson served as the chief prosecutor of white-collar crime in Northampton County.

Speakers

Cliff Rieders, a partner with the law firm of Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann, presented “The Medical Malpractice Practitioner's Tool Kit.”

The attorney's subject was issues and problems associated with electronic and computerized records, social media and cross-examination of witnesses who have specialized expertise.

Rieders speaks on various legal topics, including the presentation of the statewide “Annual Update of the Law.”

He is a past president of the Federal Bar Association, central Pennsylvania chapter.

Rieders was a founder of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority and served for 15 years.

He also was a law clerk in the federal court system for Judge Malcolm Muir.

*****

Jane Fearn-Zimmer, a shareholder in Flaster/Greenberg's elder and disability law, trusts and estates, and taxation practice groups, was tapped by the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education to participate as a panelist for two seminars in the elder law track of this year's Summer CLEfest.

Fearn-Zimmer spoke with other elder law professionals in both the morning and evening sessions.

The morning session, titled “Understanding Elder and Disability Trusts,” discussed the intricacies of Medicaid and veteran's benefits trusts used by elder and disability law practitioners, and provided guidance about how to draft and administer them.

The evening session, titled “Planning for the Future Now: Advanced Issues in Elder and Special Needs Law,” addressed some of the more complex issues that legal professionals confront every day when advising special needs and elder clients, including Medicaid crisis planning with Medicaid-compliant annuities, trusts, long-term care planning, ABLE accounts, insurance and more.

Fearn-Zimmer is an elder and disability law attorney with over 13 years of experience dealing with complex legal matters.

She speaks and write on a variety of tax, special needs planning, Medicaid planning, guardianship and estate planning topics to a broad range of groups.

Announcements

The Legal is seeking contributing authors for its weekly In-House Counsel column. Articles can cover a broad range of subjects but should be of particular interest to in-house counsel.

Contact Kristie Rearick at [email protected] for more information or to submit a proposal.