Cultivated Compendium

Laura Elliott-Engel (1/25/47—11/2/2015)

My mother took the next step on her spiritual journey Monday morning, passing away at 3:15 a.m. after a diagnosis with late-stage cancer a brief 32 days ago. My brother, Jeremy Elliott-Engel, husband, Jason Rearick, and I were with her, holding her hands as she passed. As we returned to Mom’s home on a valley hillside after she passed, the sun was rising, mist was gathered on the valley floor and light glimmered on the lake below us. All that light was the love she had for us and the world and the love we and the world still have for her.

Laura Elliott-Engel spent her life taking away the shame for people who have addictions.

Laura herself was the face of recovery because she celebrated 40 years of sobriety from alcoholism in June 2015. Not only did Laura get sober, but she turned her struggle with addiction into a career in helping people beat their own addictions. She helped many, many people get sober themselves as a counselor, as a longtime participant in Alcoholics Anonymous and as one of New York State’s leading recovery advocates.

Laura graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with high honors in 1981 with a Bachelors in Science in Social Work. Her first job as an alcoholism counselor was at the Livingston Council on Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Inc. (LCASA)—where she was recruited—in part because of her own recovery—to work with chemically dependent women isolated in the rural countryside. At LCASA, Laura also developed specialized counseling for couples, families and people who were convicted of multiple DWIs. Laura became the executive director of LCASA in 1991 and served as the organization’s leader until 2002.

Laura earned her Masters of Arts in Theology/Pastoral Counseling from Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1994. Her Masters thesis was on Grace and Responsibility: Healing of Chemically Dependent Sexually Abused Women.

Then from 2002 to 2015, Laura went on to serve as executive director of Council on Addiction Recovery Services, Inc. (CAReS), which provides counseling, intervention and prevention services to the Cattaraugus County community. The organization expanded its footprint in the county by adding offices in Machias and Gowanda, expanded its homeless housing efforts to include the Solutions to End Homelessness Program with jail-based services, and improving the health of the local community through the Cattaraugus County’s Healthy Livable Communities Consortium.

Laura was active in New York State public policy about recovery from addictions. She was a member of the Council on Addictions of New York State (CANYS) and the Finger Lakes Consortium on Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services. Laura also was a founding member of Friends of Recovery New York (FOR-NY), a statewide coalition giving a voice to people in recovery from addiction, their families and allies. She served as the group’s president—and essentially as the group’s executive director—from 2009 until shortly before her death. In seven years, the organization grew from an all-volunteer organization to hiring five full-time staff and growing its budget to almost a half million dollars.

Laura was a credentialed counselor for alcoholism, substance abuse, gambling addictions and mental health. Laura also was a certified trainer for recovery coaches who work with people with addictions or in recovery from addiction.

Laura was named a Woman of Distinction for 2002 by the New York State Senate for her contributions to society, and she received the 2009 Good News Award from the Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce.

In her youth, Laura was active in the civil rights movement, including as a participant in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and participating in civil rights marches.

Laura was born in Rochester, New York, and at various times in her life also lived in Michigan, Springwater, New York, and Cuba, New York. She is predeceased by her parents, Hugh Elliott and Dorothy (Bush) Elliott, and her former father-in-law, Adam Engel. She is survived by her sisters, Carolyn Peevey, of Greece, N.Y., Ruth Wells, of Rochester, N.Y., and Sharon Elliott, of Rochester, N.Y., as well as nieces and nephews, Sandra Weagley, William Rivera, Cindy Ingerick, Hugh Gaspar, Tim Gaspar, Johnie Peevey, Joanne “Wendy” Cymerman, Ryan Reigelsperger and Jill Reid. She also is survived by several great-nieces and great-nephews, cousins, the father of her children and ex-husband, James P. Engel, former mother-in-law Elizabeth (Didas) Engel and dear friends and colleagues.

Join family and friends for a Celebration of Life on Saturday, November 7, 2015, at the Samuel Colgate Memorial Chapel at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, 1100 South Goodman Street, Rochester, New York 14620. Guests will be welcomed at 9:30 a.m. with the ceremony to follow shortly thereafter and to be concluded by 11 a.m. A Reception/Calling Hours will be held from 12 p.m.-3 p.m. at 1872 Cafe, 431 W. Main St., Rochester, NY. Her ashes will be interred at a later date at White Haven Cemetery, Pittsford, New York. An event in honor of Laura will be held in Olean, NY, sometime this winter.

Condolences can be sent to 9256 Health Camp Road, Cuba, NY 14727. Contributions in lieu of flowers can be made to Friends of Recovery-New York, 1529 Western Avenue, Albany, NY  12203, for a living memorial to advance Laura Ellliott-Engel’s life’s work in addiction recovery. Contributions in lieu of flowers also can be made to Council on Addiction Recovery Services, Inc. (CAReS), P.O. Box 567, 201 S. Union St., Olean, NY 14760.

Here's my latest piece for the Connecticut Law Tribune:

Connecticut lawyers can now be paid by clients for their services in chickens and eggs. Well, not quite.

But an opinion issued by the Connecticut Bar Association's Standing Committee on Professional Ethics seems to have opened the door for lawyers to engage in barter.

The committee was asked to offer an opinion on whether an attorney may barter his or her legal services as part of a clearinghouse in which the members exchange goods and services. In this barter exchange program, the attorney is paid in "barter currency," which can be used to purchase goods and services from other members in the exchange. Attorney members and non-attorney members alike also must pay membership dues to such programs.

The opinion, which was drafted this past summer by three members of the CBA committee before it was ultimately approved by a majority of the committee, says that attorneys can ethically participate in barter exchange programs. But there are some limitations.

Marcy Tench Stovall, committee chairwoman and counsel at Pullman & Comley, said the main takeaway from the opinion for a lawyer admitted to practice in Connecticut is that "it's permissible for a lawyer to be paid through a barter exchange, but they have to comply with the all the relevant rules of professional conduct."

Those caveats include that attorneys participating in a barter exchange have to have a written engagement agreement, including spelling out that barter currency will be used as the compensation for legal services. "The cardinal principle governing a lawyer's fee still applies: the fee must not be unreasonable, regardless of form of payment," the opinion says.

A lawyer's participation in a barter exchange still has to comply with all applicable rules for attorney confidentiality, client solicitation and advertising, Stovall said. As a result, any ads published by the barter exchange about an attorney participating in the program must be true and not misleading, according to the opinion.

So what might a lawyer trade legal services for on such an exchange? Exchange Enterprises, which bills itself as "Connecticut's longest trusted barter company," offers everything from acupuncture treatments and small appliance parts to wigs and wedding consulting. Legal services aren't listed among the categories, but other professions such as accounting, opthalmology and sports medicine are represented.

SwapRight.com, a national barter website, includes postings from a number of lawyers. One Dallas practitioner is willing to draft wills and contracts in exchange for landscaping work that includes building a retaining wall. An Ohio attorney is offering "generic legal services and consultation" in exchange for a used car. And a California legal provider is offering civil or family law document preparation in exchange for professional photography services.

Kimberly Knox, a partner at Horton, Shields & Knox who has a practice focusing on professional disciplinary matters, said the committee's opinion "shows that the profession is becoming more flexible" and responsive to clients who may want to compensate their lawyers in non-traditional ways.

Karen Rubin, who is counsel with Thompson Hine's Cleveland office with a practice focusing on professional responsibility, wrote a column in October about the bar opinion on the Lexology website. She noted that barter exchanges have been growing around the country so much so that there is now a trade group, the National Association of Trade Exchanges.

Ethics opinions issued by the American Bar Association and from Massachusetts and California in the 1970s suggested it was improper for attorneys to participate in barter exchange agreements. More recently, ethics opinions from New York, Utah and North Carolina have found it ethical for a lawyer to participate in a barter exchange program if certain requirements are met.

"Bar regulators are extremely cautious by nature and they want to advance the interpretation of ethics rules step by step," Rubin said. "This opinion actually represents a friendlier attitude, a change in attitude, toward barter exchange agreements because … some previous ethics opinions, including from the American Bar Association, were very hostile to the idea of barter exchange arrangements."

The CBA opinion says that attorneys must preserve their independent professional judgment and keep the sole authority to accept matters if they are participating in a barter exchange program. The barter exchange also must not have any influence over the legal services provided through the clearinghouse, and the barter exchange must not be entitled to information about the representation of the client.

The committee also found that a lawyer's participation in a barter exchange program doesn't violate the rules against sharing legal fees with non-lawyers. The committee further opined that litigation expenses can only be paid in advance for legal services if there is a written fee agreement.

Rubin noted that other jurisdictions may not be able to follow Connecticut's lead in allowing attorneys to participate in barter exchanges. She questioned how a barter transaction would work in states where legal fees paid in advance must be put into a client trust account.

In her column, Rubin further said "there might be issues in a barter transaction where a lawyer receives plumbing services immediately, but 'pays' with legal services that will stretch out over an extended period of time: are the plumbing services advance fees, and how will they be 'withdrawn' only as earned?"