About Us

Mission

The law office of Keelin S. Barry opened in 2006 with a mission: to help seniors and their families with all of their legal needs. Whatever your legal needs related to planning for possible incapacity, managing your estate, finding and paying for care, managing the affairs of one who has passed, or other legal questions related to growing older, we can answer your legal questions and provide guidance.

Meet the Team

Keelin S. Barry, Esquire

Founder, Managing Attorney

Keelin founded the law office in 2006 and serves as the managing attorney. Keelin practices in the areas of estate administration, estate planning, guardianship, Medicaid, and long term care planning. Keelin was honored to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Elder Law Taskforce which, in 2014, issued a report intended to be a blueprint to enable the courts to successfully address the challenges of Pennsylvania’s expanding aging population.

From 2016 to the present, Keelin has served as a member of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Elder Justice Committee and as a member of the Pennsylvania Administrative Office of the Courts’ Committee designing a state-wide guardianship tracking system.

Keelin has lectured at continuing legal education programs on elder law topics including guardianship, public benefits and probate. She was honored to be invited to present to the Pennsylvania College of State Trial Judges in 2015.

Keelin graduated from Rutgers-Camden School of Law in 1986. After clerking for the Honorable AJ. Moore, N.J. Superior Court – Mercer County, she worked with the Philadelphia Public Defender’s Office from 1987 – 1989. Keelin then worked as Director of the Child Custody Mediation Project, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and from 1990 to 1999 served as Director of Friends Conflict Resolution Programs in Philadelphia. Keelin has trained well over 400 adult mediators and at least as many student mediators of all ages.

Keelin was a founding team member of Freire Charter School, a Girl Scout leader, and has served on the Board of Directors of several non-profit agencies. This broad perspective allows Keelin and her staff to see and encourage solutions outside of the ordinary lawyer’s toolbox.

Keelin lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Bruce. Her two adult children live in San Francisco and Minneapolis.

Jessica Cholminski

Paralegal

Jess started her career in law office administration and elder law services in 1998. Armed with four years of experience she received her associate’s degree in Paralegal Studies from The Community College of Philadelphia in 2002. In 2010, Jess joined the Law Office of Keelin S. Barry, LLC and has been an essential part of our team ever since.

Barbara Gatta

Elder Care Coordinator

Barbara makes sure that guardianship and long term care clients’ needs are met. Barbara helps to develop care plans, monitors implementation of the care plans and advocates for appropriate changes.

Having helped care for several aging members of her own family, Barbara understands the strains on caregivers and the challenges of getting the best possible quality of care. Barbara initially worked with us as a social work assistant, visiting and advocating for a better quality of life for clients in skilled nursing facilities and in the community.

When Barbara “broke out the Caddy” to take a client to the Jersey shore to visit her beloved brother who also was in a nursing home, we knew Barbara was special. When she didn’t charge the client, we knew she was REALLY special. After four years of working with our clients “in the field,” Barbara joined our staff as Elder Care Coordinator in August of 2016. Barbara is a native of the Philadelphia area, although she left to spend 23 years raising her family and enjoying a full and varied career in communications design and freelance writing in Brooklyn.

She received her BA from University of Delaware, and an MS from Pratt Institute. Barbara enjoys the broad scope of the work at our office. “Every day I go home and tell my family about the good things I made happen that day for our clients. I really feel we do our absolute best to improve the lives of our people.”

Barbara lives with her husband, two of her three grown children, and her father-in-law. And, of course, there is Scout the dawg.

About Us

Mission

Meet the Team

Keelin S. Barry, Esquire

Jessica Cholminski

Barbara Gatta

About Us

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