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Terry Garrett: A Columbia-Trained Elder Law Attorney Who Studied Finance in Asia

Terry Garrett’s academic background is unusually finance-heavy for an attorney: Dean’s List at Wharton Business School, every certificate offered by the New York Institute of Finance, and years spent working and studying in Asia, which she now applies to advising clients with transnational and multinational-business estate concerns. That’s a specific, uncommon combination in Austin’s elder law market, where most practitioners come from a purely legal background.

Origin and Background

Terry Garrett graduated with honors from Cornell University, was on the Dean’s List at Wharton Business School, and earned her J.D. at Columbia Law School in 1983, receiving the Parker Award and a Mellon Fellowship. She completed postgraduate work at Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Program and earned every certificate offered by the New York Institute of Finance. She is a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) through the National Elder Law Foundation — a credential the field’s own literature notes only around 500 attorneys nationally hold — and serves on the board of the Texas Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), as well as on NAELA’s federal advocacy committee. She is accredited by the Veterans Administration, is a credentialed mediator, and is a Texas-Approved Guardianship Attorney appointed by Central Texas courts in heirship and guardianship proceedings.

Practice Concentration

The Garrett Law Firm practices estate planning, elder law, Medicaid and long-term care planning, special needs planning, guardianship, and probate and estate settlement. Garrett’s stated client base ranges from couples just starting retirement planning to families with multinational business holdings, reflecting the international-finance dimension of her background. For firms with a different specialty focus, see our Estate Planning & Probate directory.

Notable Work / Track Record

As is standard for estate planning and elder law practices, the firm does not publish verdict or settlement figures. Awesome Attorneys is disclosing that gap rather than substituting marketing language for it. What is independently verifiable is depth of specialty credentialing: CELA certification, NAELA Texas chapter board service, VA accreditation, and court-appointed guardianship attorney status — a combination that goes beyond the baseline requirements for general estate planning practice into elder-law-specific expertise.

Client Voice

Garrett’s reviews are overwhelmingly detailed and positive. One client wrote that the estate planning package “was extremely detailed and helpful,” adding that Garrett “gave us a tremendous amount of information that we would not have otherwise considered.” Another described a family crisis situation, writing “Ms. Garrett helped our family under very difficult circumstances, and helped navigate what could have been a crisis situation… we have been able to care for our mother and come together as a family.” Awesome Attorneys also located one substantive negative review, which Awesome Attorneys is disclosing directly rather than omitting: a client hiring Garrett for a probate matter on a flat-fee basis reported that after their documents were reportedly lost, they were billed hourly plus filing fees rather than at the agreed flat rate — a specific, serious complaint about billing that stands apart from the firm’s otherwise strongly positive review pattern. Awesome Attorneys did not identify additional reviews describing a similar pattern, which is why this is treated as a disclosed individual complaint rather than a disqualifying pattern.

Beyond the Courtroom

Garrett was named Austin Monthly’s top elder lawyer in 2020. She is a member of the Estate Planning Council of Central Texas and the Texas Guardianship Association, and her firm’s marketing explicitly positions itself around “practical, low-cost solutions” — a stated affordability focus worth noting alongside her elite academic credentials, since the two aren’t always paired in estate planning marketing.

Recognition for This Austin Elder Law and Estate Planning Attorney

Peer-reviewed and third-party credentials: Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) status from the National Elder Law Foundation, a nationally rare specialty credential; board service with the Texas Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; and Veterans Administration accreditation. Austin Monthly’s “top elder lawyer” recognition and Avvo’s Client’s Choice badge are reader-poll and client-review-driven distinctions rather than formal peer or judicial review, and Awesome Attorneys distinguishes them accordingly from the CELA and NAELA credentials above. Awesome Attorneys did not identify a Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification for Garrett specifically in Estate Planning and Probate Law, and notes that directly since the CELA credential, while rigorous, is a distinct certification from TBLS board certification.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Medicaid’s long-term care eligibility rules — a central focus of Garrett’s practice — include a five-year “lookback period” during which Texas Medicaid reviews all asset transfers before an application; transfers made for less than fair value during that window can trigger a penalty period of ineligibility, which is why elder law attorneys emphasize advance planning rather than crisis-mode applications. Guardianship proceedings in Texas, another practice focus, are governed by Texas Estates Code Title 3 and require clear and convincing evidence that a proposed ward is substantially unable to manage their own affairs — a standard specifically designed to avoid unnecessarily stripping someone’s legal autonomy when less restrictive alternatives (like a power of attorney) would suffice. None of this is legal advice; a specific Medicaid planning or guardianship matter should be evaluated by a licensed Texas attorney based on the actual facts and finances involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Garrett’s clearest, most specific differentiator is depth in the genuinely specialized niche of elder law and Medicaid planning — a nationally rare CELA credential, NAELA board service, and VA accreditation — combined with an unusual finance-and-international background that suits complex or multinational estate situations. The honest trade-off is the one disclosed negative review above: a specific billing complaint on a probate matter that stands out against an otherwise strongly positive review record, and it’s worth a prospective client asking directly about fee structure and what happens if a flat-fee engagement’s scope changes. For a family navigating Medicaid planning, guardianship, or special needs trust work — genuinely technical sub-specialties where CELA certification signals real depth — that combination of credentials is a strong basis for a shortlist. For a routine, low-complexity estate plan, a general estate planning attorney without the elder-law specialty may be a more cost-proportionate fit.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from The Garrett Law Firm’s official website (elderlawaustin.com), Terry Garrett’s Martindale-Hubbell, Lawyers.com, Justia, and Handel on the Law attorney profiles, and Elder Options of Texas’s public explanation of the CELA credential. Client quotes, including the disclosed negative review, are reproduced from publicly posted, attributed reviews.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Terry Garrett or The Garrett Law Firm prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.