Lisa Salines-Mondello remembers how helpless she felt when one of her father’s relatives, who was blind and elderly, called asking for help because she was headed to a senior care facility against her wishes.

“I remember how devastated my father was by this and that he was powerless to help her. And I myself felt terrible because I was only 18, and I was powerless. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

Moved by that experience and her own time as a caretaker, Salines-Mondello later found her calling. She became a certified elder law specialist in North Carolina and nationally, using her expertise to guide families like her own through challenging legal decisions.

“I was very motivated before there was even a specialty for it,” said Salines-Mondello, who founded her law firm in 2009.

Salines-Mondello is one of many Wilmington-area attorneys who have carved out niche practices to address complex matters that vary from case to case.

At the Salines-Mondello Law Firm, she has a broad elder law and estate planning practice, including wills, special needs trusts, guardianship, Medicaid/Medicare, VA benefits, annuities and many other facets of life-to-death planning.

Originally from Boston, Salines-Mondello earned her law degree from the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth. She is among only about 500-525 Certified Elder Law Attorneys in the United States, according to the National Elder Law Foundation. She is also a board-certified elder law specialist recognized by the N.C. State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.

Sometimes people wait too long to address complex issues, according to Salines-Mondello.

“Instead of coming for help and doing preplanning, they wait until the crisis happens, and then they have not only a crisis to deal with, but they have all that stress, and then they have to do all the things to get helpful measures put in place,” she said.

Another hurdle is information.

“The biggest challenge with clients is talking about the myths that they believe when they walk in the door – how they think things are going to happen,” Salines-Mondello said.

A couple of examples:

• One myth is that surviving spouses automatically inherit everything. Not true, she said. The law may direct assets elsewhere, even in a marriage with children.
• Another myth is that a spouse entering a nursing home means losing everything. Wrong, according to Salines-Mondello. There are legal strategies to protect assets.

Salines-Mondello is also writing a book about estate planning and elder law, which she plans to give away.
 

BANKRUPTCY FOCUS

Another Wilmington attorney, Algernon Butler III, built a career around bankruptcy law. He joined the Wilmington-based law firm of Butler & Butler in 1996, after graduating from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1994 and clerking for a bankruptcy judge.

“I find the federal bankruptcy statutes very interesting and fascinating, and the combination of them and the state interaction with the bankruptcy code and state law exposes me to a very wide breadth of legal issues and types of cases,” Butler said. “I feel like it keeps me sharp and knowledgeable about a lot of types of law while still being able to develop my specialization under the bankruptcy code.”

Bankruptcies have been on the rise. According to a February report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, total bankruptcy filings rose 11% in the 12-month period ending Dec. 31, with increases in both business and nonbusiness bankruptcies.

Annual bankruptcy filings totaled more than 574,00 last year, compared with about 517,000 cases in the previous year, the report stated.

Butler, a state-certified specialist in business and consumer bankruptcy law, represents both creditors and debtors in consumer Chapter 7 and 13 cases, as well as in corporate Chapter 11 cases.

“When a debtor files for bankruptcy and they have an attorney to look after them, there are also creditors involved, and creditors have very important rights under the bankruptcy code,” Butler said, “whether they’re secured creditors and they’re entitled to payment or entitled to recover their collateral back or they may be unsecured creditors, and they’re entitled to a fair and a required dividend payment under the bankruptcy code if the debtor has disposable income or equity in property. So, it’s important that creditors’ rights are looked after.”
 

CREATIVITY AT WORK

Thomas Varnum, an attorney at Brooks Pierce’s Wilmington office, represents clients in intellectual property law. Those clients include individuals and businesses in the entertainment and alcohol manufacturing industries, among others.

He’s also co-owner of Mad Mole Brewing near Wrightsville Beach.

Varnum, who serves clients in the Wilmington area and beyond, said lately, he’s seen an increase in the number of authors who need his services.

“I enjoy having more than one focus, and from day to day, or even hour to hour, doing pretty different things, but working with folks who are creative and doing interesting things,” he said. “In my mind, that’s kind of the common thread between some of the breweries or distilleries that I’ve worked with, or a filmmaker or an author or content-creating company that is developing intellectual property – these are folks who are creative and not afraid to try things and do new things.”

Attorneys like Salines-Mondello, Butler and Varnum must stay current with the latest laws and developments, regardless of their specialties.

“I try to do over 150 hours of education a year,” Salines-Mondello said, “because I feel like I can never know enough.”
 

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