FROM THE EDITOR

By BRAD A. ALLEN Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P.

Farewell to Shadowlands

“The further up and further in you go, the bigger everything gets.
The inside is larger than the outside.”
— Mr. Tumnus (From The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis)

Many of you have likely seen the box office hit The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe based on the book by C. S. Lewis. This classic tells the story of four children who magically leave our world through a wardrobe, and enter a world called Narnia full of amazing creatures, spectacular battles – and surprise – a lion and a witch. Six books later, in the finale titled The Last Battle, the characters leave their own world (the Shadowlands) and travel to a new world. It is during this transition that they realize for the first time that the world they had been living in was just a shadow of the real world – the world they could and should live in. Although they are intimidated at first by the new world, they begin to realize the “further up and further in” they travel in the new world that everything is bigger and better than they could have imagined before.
This special issue on Elder and Health Law, like The Last Battle, is an adventure and transition. It is an adventure into the world of elder and health law, specialties many of us are intimidated by, but nevertheless must face either professionally, personally, or both. With an aging population we will all have to address, for ourselves, for our families, and for our clients, how to handle issues that impact the elderly. This issue is designed to be a starting point to help you become comfortable with addressing the more common issues facing our elderly and their families including ADEA, HIPAA, medical coverage, patient’s rights, wills, estate, and end of life issues. We hope the “further up and further in” you travel with the ten substantive articles in this issue, the more comfortable you will be with addressing these issues.
A huge thank you goes to our guest editors for this issue, Mindy McGehee Riseden and Holly Wheeler. This issue includes more substantive articles than any other single issue in recent memory. That combined with the work necessary to create the first ever Elder-Health Law Special Issue for The Houston Lawyer required a tremendous commitment from Mindy and Holly. I also want to thank Ruth Piller and Maxine Goodman for guest editing our last issue spotlighting volunteerism. The feedback on that issue was awesome, and Ruth and Maxine deserve credit for an excellent job.
This issue is a transition from one editorial board to the next. Michelle Cash is the next Editor in Chief, and I congratulate her on this well deserved promotion. I also want to thank Michelle, Tara Shockley, and the editorial board for all their hard work this year; Randy Sorrels for this appointment; and my partners and my wife Gretchen for supporting my addiction to HBA projects.
I began my first issue as Editor in Chief with a quote from Samuel Palmer Brooks, former president of Baylor University, and that is how my time will end: “To you I hand the torch.” For me, this is not an end, but a new beginning for new adventures at the HBA. I hope this is a new beginning for you as well and that our issues this year motivated you to become more involved in the HBA, to realize how much more there is on the inside. “Further up and further in.”

The 2005-2006 Editorial Board of The Houston Lawyer – seated from left: Jocelyn LaBove, Associate Editor Fred Simpson, Editor in Chief Brad Allen, Associate Editor Michelle Cash. Standing, from left: Gabriel Aitsebaomo, Alex Azzo, Mark Correro, Associate Editor David Wilson, Maxine Goodman, Ruth Piller, Benjamin Sanchez, Ann Zeigler, Al Harrison, Don Rogers, Mindy McGehee Riseden, Don Ford, Holly Wheeler, Jason Ostrom. Not pictured: Associate Editor Sharon Cammack, Madison Finch, Paul Heyburn, Robert Higgason, Michael Mazzone, Sam Mullin, Wendell Odom, Jr., James Paulsen, Patrice Pujol, Gwen Richard, and Mark Trachtenberg.

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