Van Winkle expands elder law practice

February 15, 2007 — The Van Winkle Law Firm has expanded its elder law practice by bringing on board the team from Johnston & McCann, PLLC at its Hendersonville office. With two attorneys and five support personnel focusing exclusively on the needs of older and disabled individuals and their families, The Van Winkle Law Firm now offers the region’s most comprehensive source of elder law services.

Joining Van Winkle elder law attorney Caroline Knox and her staff are attorney Diana Armatage Johnston, legal assistant Mary Lou Edwards and paralegals Tobi Brock and Peggy Franc.

After working 17 years as a legal services attorney, Johnston went into private practice in 1991, opening the first law office in Western North Carolina devoted exclusively to elder law matters. In 1995, she was among the first group of lawyers in the country to be certified as an elder law attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation. She is one of only 10 Certified Elder Law Attorneys in the state and one of fewer than 400 in the nation.

Johnston and Knox are both members of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and past members of the Elder Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. Johnston has served as co-chair of the Carolinas chapter of NAELA, and she and Knox have spoken extensively on elder law issues to attorneys and other professionals.

The Van Winkle Law Firm is servicing all of Johnston & McCann’s clients, with Johnston serving of counsel and the rest of her staff joining Van Winkle on a full-time basis.

“The Van Winkle Law Firm is strengthening its commitment to providing Western North Carolina with the most comprehensive elder law services in the region,” Knox said. “As our community grows older – both due to the aging of an existing population and more retirees choosing to call this area home – there’s an increased demand for services such as estate planning, long-term care advocacy, trust and estate administration, guardianship and special needs trust planning, and assistance with Medicaid and other public benefits applications.

“By putting under one roof the Hendersonville attorneys and staff who dedicate themselves to this work, we’re able to handle the complex needs of this growing population more efficiently,” she said.

The Van Winkle Law Firm is the largest practice in Western North Carolina and one of the oldest in the state. The firm offers the region’s most extensive list of practice areas, and its force of nearly 40 attorneys and more than 60 support professionals represents clients in a broad array of legal issues in every level of the federal and state court systems. Van Winkle is celebrating its centennial in 2007.