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<\/p>\n\t\t\t\tSharing Our Memories: Anthony Enea<\/p>\n
4.10.2026<\/p>\n
By Rebecca Melnitsky<\/p>\n
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In honor of our 150th anniversary, we asked longtime, involved members for their recollections of the New York State Bar Association.<\/p>\n
Anthony Enea, past chair of the Elder Law and Special Needs Section, remembered the successful fight against a law that criminalized advising clients on transfers of assets to qualify for Medicaid, otherwise known as \u201cGranny\u2019s Lawyer Goes to Jail,\u201d in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a big seminal moment for the association and the section where there were assertions being made and possible statutes presented that would have made engaging in Medicaid planning a crime. Federal law criminalized transferring assets for Medicaid eligibility. It was repealed in 1997. And then they tried to propose \u2018Granny\u2019s Lawyer Goes to Jail,\u2019 which made it a crime to advise for a fee on asset transfers for Medicaid purposes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, in 1998, it was deemed unconstitutional due to First Amendment free speech violations. So that was a very big moment for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fought back against it. We contacted our legislators. At the Elder Law Section, we\u2019ve always been very proactive in working with lobbyists and the legislators involved in senior and special needs issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of times that we\u2019ve been very active, but this was the one that stood out. First, it was \u2018Granny Goes to Jail.\u2019 Then, they wanted to make the person doing the planning a criminal, and then it was \u2018Granny\u2019s Lawyer Goes to Jail.\u2019 So, it\u2019s that whole period of time. We rose up as a section and members of the state bar and actively fought it.\u201d<\/p>\n