Donald N. Freedman
Donald Freedman
Newton
Massachusetts (MA)
Elder Law
Estate Planning & Probate
Social Security Disability
Profile
Our clients often come to us feeling overwhelmed by their concerns, whether about impoverishing themselves in paying for a spouse's nursing home placement, ensuring the personal and financial protection of a child with special needs after they are gone, or obtaining essential disability benefits and health care services. These needs pose complex issues. The law itself is complicated and government procedures and bureaucracies seldom help. Also, we need to take into account sensitive personal and family considerations, particularly involving the effort to find a balance of autonomy and protection that is appropriate for the particular client. With seven lawyers and five paralegals concentrating on every aspect of elder and disability law, estate planning, trust administration and estate settlement, our staff has the commitment, knowledge, depth and expertise to respond quickly and effectively to even the most difficult situation. Being an integral part of a full service firm, the second largest in Newton, gives us the capacity to bring relevant expertise - in real estate, domestic relations, creditor protection, or litigation, for example - to bear on any elder or disability law issue. We are very willing to work with a client's other financial, tax, accounting and care advisors, to help the client forge a comprehensive response to his or her needs.
Selected To
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2011
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2010
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2009
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2008
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2007
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2006
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2005
Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2004
About Donald Freedman
Admitted: 1972, Massachusetts
Professional Webpage: www.rfglawyers.com/attorneys_and_staff/dfreedman/
Honors and Awards:
- In January 2009, Attorney Freedman was chosen by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. to be one of its four recipients that year of its Scholar-Mentor Award for "outstanding contributions to legal education" over the past twenty-five years.
Pro bono/Community Service:
- A past Board Chair of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Chapter of the Alzheimers Association, Attorney Freedman has also served as an appointee to the Governor's Commission on Mental Retardation, and as chief staff and later an appointed member of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Jewish Vocational Services, Inc., where he chaired the Disability Services Committee. Attorney Freedman currently serves on the Executive Advisory Council of The Arc of Masssachusetts (formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens), on the Board of Advocates of Boston Jewish Family & Children's Services and as board chair of the Learning Prep School, a day school for students with learning and language disorders.
Scholarly Lectures and Writings:
- Attorney Freedman, with Attorney Emily Starr, of Worcester, conceived the most important treatise for Massachusetts attorneys on elder and disability law, the three-volume, "Estate Planning for the Aged or Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts," published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He and Attorney Starr have authored chapters in and edited every edition of the treatise, now in its 4th edition, (2011, in press). He has also co-authored with his wife, Ruth I. Freedman, Ph.D., the chapter, "Planning for Now and the Future: Social, Legal and Financial Concerns," in Life Course Perspectives on Adulthood and Old Age, (American Association on Mental Retardation 1994). He speaks frequently before lay and professional groups on elder and disability law topics.
Other Outstanding Achievements:
- in June 2010, Attorney Freedman was selected for inclusion in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® (Copyright 2006 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.), among "Boston's Best Lawyers" in the field of elder law, as published in the Boston Globe Magazine. This was his fourth consecutive year of selection.
Donald N. Freedman:
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