Alison Barnes, J.D., had a clear mission: after caring for her dying mother while she was in her mid-20s, she wanted to use her law degree to make a difference for people late in their lives. Today, as a leading scholar in the area of elder law, she has done just that.

Edward Fallone, Ph.D.

Barnes’ expertise is often sought after. She served as a senior policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging and then spent a year conducting research at the University of Cambridge. Soon after, she co-authored the first edition of Elder Law, the law text that defined the academic field and that is used at more than 80 law schools. Barnes is completing the fourth edition with new cases and analysis of issues such as “reverse” age discrimination, intergenerational responsibility and elder care quality.

Barnes’ research targets elder law and public policy questions, particularly health law and benefits. The Medicare prescription drug benefit implemented in 2006, for example, presents a multitude of issues, including the law’s prohibition of drug price negotiation by federal government and the difficulty many seniors have in comparing the complicated plans. “You can’t have competition among the plans if you can’t compare them,” she says. “And you can never compare them effectively when your health care needs and the plan itself are subject to change — as they are — every year.”

Barnes is also examining the 2005 restrictions on Medicaid planning for long-term care. “This is an issue polarized by stereotypes that depict the rich elder as willing to hide assets to get that government-paid nursing home bed,” she says. “The truth is far more complex, so understanding is stalled.” The Law School is holding a national symposium on the topic in 2007.

She is the founder and adviser of the law review Elder’s Advisor, which examines topics ranging from tax and estate planning to nursing home emergency preparedness after Hurricane Katrina. “Some of our most extraordinary students staff this law review,” says Barnes. “They bring their intellect and passion to this field critical to us all.”

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Quick Facts About Marquette

Identity: Catholic, Jesuit, private
Established: 1881
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