Gary Bauer

Gary Bauer has joined The Wallace Firm, P.C. as an “Of Counsel” attorney. Mr. Bauer brings to the firm over 32 years of experience with primary emphasis on elder law. Elder law encompasses a wide variety of legal issues. But the primarily focus is on those issues affecting planning for management of one’s assets and health care during the aging process. That includes Powers of Attorney, Guardianships, and ultimately to transfer of one’s property at death through Wills and Trusts. Mr. Bauer is a resident of Alcona County and resides on Hubbard Lake where he has been a resident for the last 10 years. Mr. Bauer has conducted workshops in Alpena for the Senior Center and for the Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union concerning estate planning. Some of the topics covered in those workshops included: What is a Will, do I need one? What is a Trust, do I need one? What is a Ladybird Deed?, How do I plan for long-term care expenses? Mr. Bauer will be offering his services to the local community for the first time and will be providing additional information through a newsletter for subscribers to The Wallace Firm, P.C. Newsletter at no charge. 

Mr. Bauer is a tenured Visiting Emeritus Professor of Law at Western Michigan University, Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan where he has been employed full time since 1997 and currently employed as an adjunct.  He was the Director of the Sixty Plus Elderlaw Estate Planning Clinic which he established in 1999. He is also the current Chair of the ABA GP Solo, Small Firm Division Legal Educator's Committee. 

Professor Bauer has written numerous law journal articles and published multiple monographs in other professional publications. He has been a featured speaker at Michigan's Solo Institute and regularly is called upon to help practitioners, and the public alike, to better understand the principles of estate planning and practice management for lawyers. As past Chair of the Law Practice Management Section of the State Bar of Michigan, he was instrumental in the early formation and establishment of the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education Solo Institute. He currently serves on that organization's Executive Planning Committee. In 2016 he was awarded the General Practice Solo Division of the American Bar Association's Trainer Award for 2016 and also recognized by the State Bar of Michigan with the Outstanding Achievement Award presented by that Bar's Solo and Small Firm Section in that year.

Professor Bauer has been very actively engaged in helping students and recent graduates prepare for the business of law either in solo or small firm practice. He conducts classes to train and assist law students to embark on careers which make sense for each of them. He has sponsored and maintained a Google Group as a listserv for over 350 grads and students in their efforts to communicate with one another and establish themselves in practice. He also published over 130 blogs in the last year and a half at sololawyerbydesign.com which is full of tips on how to succeed in practice. He has two titles published by the American Bar Association, “Solo Lawyer by Design” and “Hire and Retire” available through the ABA or on Amazon.