One of SeniorLAW Center’s founders, Steve Feldman, shared about his pro bono service to help establish a Justice in Guardianship legal aid program to provide the zealous representation necessary to protect the rights and independence of those who are alleged to be incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves. This article originally appeared in the March 16, 2026 edition of the The Philadelphia Bar Association’s Bar Reporter.
In my last year of undergraduate school as a psychology major in 1973 at Temple University, I became an intern at the Philadelphia Gerontological Research Institute. I became a full-time research assistant for the following three years after graduation, during which I had the privilege to work with Powell Lawton, a celebrated environmental psychologist pioneering in the study of how the environment impacts the health and life satisfaction of older people. As you might expect, I gained a great deal of experience and an appreciation of the many challenges facing older adults.
After attending one year of law school in the Temple evening program, I advised my mentor that I was resigning to find law-related employment. Aside from the fact that he teased me about being a “traitor” to leave the study of aging, he said, “Of course, you will search for a position that will combine your experience in aging with the law.” I told him at that time there was no such opportunity. Six weeks later, I became a full-time legal assistant at what has become the SeniorLAW Center, originally established by the Philadelphia Bar Association in 1977.
Since then, I have maintained my involvement with the Law Center in different capacities ranging from its Executive Director upon my graduation from law school to the Chair of its Board of Directors, and most importantly and most satisfyingly, as a volunteer attorney during the years. I immodestly take credit for hiring Karen Buck, its current Executive Director, and have been proud of its extraordinary growth from a tiny office in donated space at the Bar Association to a $6 million organization with a staff of over 60 attorneys and advocates, multiple offices, and advocating on local state and national levels in the areas of housing justice, elder abuse and exploitation, grandparents raising grandchildren, and other areas of basic human needs.
My contemporaries know first-hand that fading memory is just one of the common challenges facing us as we age. But despite wide perception, failing memory does not neatly equate with diminished capacity. It is more complicated. SeniorLAW Center has been in the forefront of advocating for the alleged incapacitated. The law governing incapacity has been amended through its prodigious efforts with partners and the Courts. It now guarantees the right to counsel in all petitions seeking to appoint guardians, guardians who may be empowered to abrogate an aging individual’s right to control all aspects of decisional independence. Some have described that outcome as “a civil death.”
SeniorLAW Center was not only a leading voice in the vanguard modernizing the law. It has also established a Justice in Guardianship legal aid program to provide the zealous representation necessary to protect the rights and independence of those who are alleged to be incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves. This includes those who actually do not need guardians and are capable of making their own life decisions, those who have been abused, neglected or exploited by guardians, and those for whom less restrictive alternatives are a solution. Through its representation, SeniorLAW Center has also educated the Bench and Bar about the need for mindfulness of how conduct may dramatically intrude upon the lives of this vulnerable population.
I have had the honor since its inception to volunteer my time to “mentor” its attorneys staffing the Justice in Guardianship program. This program has garnered the respect of the Bench and the Bar practicing within the jurisdiction of the Orphans’ Court. In one notable case that stands out in my mind, the SeniorLAW Center staff attorney and I were able to vacate an order appointing a plenary guardian over an older woman who was hospitalized due to her confusion stemming from temporarily unregulated diabetes. Upon discharge from the hospital, she was placed into a nursing facility by the hospital staff where she was assaulted by another resident. After the Order was vacated, she was able to return to her own apartment and live life again on her own terms.
This case is not uncommon. Hospitals frequently petition for guardianship to facilitate discharge planning for what I refer to as “unbefriended” elderly. merely because they are frail or they have mild memory deficits– regardless of its cause. Without SeniorLAW Center’s efforts, this older adult would still be languishing in a nursing facility. I still receive Christmas cards from her expressing her gratitude.
I have also had the pleasure to work as a pro bono attorney with the Center’s staff to fight for grandparent rights, drafting an amicus curiae brief in Hiller v. Fausey. In that case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a state statute conferring standing upon parents of deceased child to protect their right, at a minimum, to visit their grandchildren where the surviving parent refuses to allow any meaningful relationship.
In my 40 years of practicing law in the field of Law and Aging, and as one of its first practitioners in the country, I take great pride in the powerful impact the Center, and my role in it, has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of older adults and their families. We do not use the term “Elder Law” to describe this work which fights senior poverty, prevents senior homelessness and provides protection from devastating abuse, exploitation and violence. It is much more.
SeniorLAW Center will soon embark upon its 50th year of service and will hold its annual Celebration of Justice March 25, 2026. I encourage everyone to attend and support its invaluable service to older adults, not just financially, which of course is always welcome, but by volunteering your time to enhance the priceless services it provides. One constant in all of our lives is that if we live, we will age. Join us in creating a world that values older people, hears their voices and works fiercely to secure their rights.
Stephen A. Feldman, Esq., now Of Counsel to the law firm of Feldman and Feldman, concentrating in estate planning and health law, was a founding leader and former Chair of the Board of Directors of SeniorLAW Center. Steve practiced law for 45 years, served as Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of North Dakota, is a past Chair of the Philadelphia Task Force on Elder Abuse, and was a draftsman of the Older Adults Protective Service Act.
SeniorLAW Center seeks justice for older people by using the power of the law, educating the community and advocating on the local, state and national levels. We serve over 10,000 older people each year. Our vision is a world that values older people, hears their voices and guarantees their rights. SeniorLAW Center changes individual lives and works to change systems to promote justice, security, and independence for older Americans and their families. To donate to SeniorLAW Center, visit SeniorLAWCenter.org/Donate or click below.