‘Elder and Disability Law in Massachusetts’ Earns Top Prize from ACLEA

SPRINGFIELD — The Assoc. for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA) has awarded “Elder and Disability Law in Massachusetts” the top prize for outstanding achievement in the publication category of the international organization’s 2024 Best Awards. Two local attorneys, Carol Cioe Klyman and Stephen Sobey of Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., contributed to this legal treatise.

Klyman and Sobey wrote four chapters for the book, published in 2023 by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Inc. (MCLE). The publication updates and expands on MCLE’s “Estate Planning for the Aging and Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts,” to which Klyman has contributed since 1996.

“The competition was fierce,” said Maryanne Jensen, MCLE’s director of Publications. “Entries came in from CLE organizations around the world. While our book met (and surpassed) each of the strict, technical criteria imposed by the awards committee, it was the editorial and auctorial excellence of our volunteer authors that garnered this award. MCLE is so grateful to the experts in elder and disability law who shared their expertise. Their dedication to CLE and to providing top-caliber, ethics-driven, practical CLE is nothing short of exemplary.”

Recognized in the field of elder law for 20 years, Klyman was co-editor of the Massachusetts Elder Law Sourcebook & Citator and is an editor emeritus of the NAELA Journal, the peer-reviewed publication of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.

Sobey joined Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin in 2017 and, among his accolades, was selected to participate in this year’s New England Fellows Institute by the American College of Trust and Estates Counsel. He has been listed as a Massachusetts Rising Star three times in the field of estate and probate law.