GENERATION LAW - Key Persons
Andrea focuses her practice on estate planning and elder law, which includes helping families to plan for long-term care and navigating the Medicaid planning and application process. Her strong tax and employee benefits background enable her to develop comprehensive estate plans designed to help families achieve their personal goals while transferring wealth to future generations in a tax advantaged manner.
Before joining Generation Law, Andrea spent 12 years as an employee benefits and executive compensation attorney at Baker & McKenzie in Chicago. Andrea received her J.D. and LL.M. from John Marshall Law School, graduating summa cum laude and with honors, respectively. Andrea also served as the Lead Articles Editor of The John Marshall Law Review
Andrea is a huge hockey fan, loves to garden and reads obsessively. In addition, she is an opera and ballet enthusiast, attending performances as often as her two teenagers' busy schedules will permit.
As one of only a few elder law attorneys in Illinois with a CPA after his name, Ben offers a unique perspective to help his clients plan for their future. Since founding Generation Law in 2003, Ben has helped thousands of families care for aging loved ones, resolve family conflicts, afford long-term care costs and ensure their wishes are carried out - without losing their sanity or going broke.
Ben formed Generation Law, which concentrates in elder law, estate planning, wills and trusts, and guardianship and probate litigation, after spending several years with worldwide law firm Baker & McKenzie. Ben was named an Illinois Super Lawyer in Elder Law in 2007, receiving this recognition again in 2009 and every year since. After graduating with a degree in finance from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, he earned his law degree from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.
A frequent professional speaker, Ben is known for his candid approach to the so-called "Caregiver Storm" - the challenges of caring for a loved one while maintaining your own life. Ben is also actively involved in the legal community, currently serving as the chairman of the board of the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education and as a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. He is a member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Bar of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois and the Bar of the State of Illinois.
Ben is a supportive husband and involved dad, despite limited success convincing his teenage sons to put down the video games. After abandoning his late-in-life speed skating career, Ben slowed down the pace by switching to triathlons and has successfully completed several extreme Ironman distance triathlons in remote places such as Chile and Norway.
As part of the Generation Law team, Dirk focuses on guardianship investigation and litigation. Dirk works to protect the rights and welfare of clients with disabilities, while acting on behalf of family members or others wishing to serve as guardians for their loved ones. The opportunity to ensure someone's security and well-being is work that Dirk finds both challenging and rewarding, and his dedication and enthusiasm benefits clients and colleagues alike.
After graduating from The John Marshall Law School, where he distinguished himself with multiple honors, Dirk began his career as a law clerk at his father's firm of Heitz & Bromberek. It was there that he was first introduced to the practice of elder law and where he found what has since become his calling - guardianships.
Dirk grew up playing hockey and is a huge Chicago Blackhawks fan. He also enjoys golfing with friends and cooking when he has the time. His signature dish is homemade lasagna.
Inspired by personal interactions with probate and trust administration, Krystian focuses his practice on estate planning. His outside‑the‑box thinking informs the counsel he provides.
Krystian attended Villanova University in Pennsylvania. While at Villanova, he earned a B.A. in Psychology, with minors in Chinese language and Asian Studies and a minor in Business from the Villanova School of Business.
A native of the Elmhurst area, Krystian returned to the Midwest to attend the University of Illinois College of Law on a full-ride scholarship. During law school, Krystian clerked for an immigration judge; wrote academic articles for the Journal of Law, Technology & Policy; and earned high marks, graduating cum laude in 2021. He passed the bar later that same year, scoring in the top 5% of all Uniform Bar Exam takers.
Before joining Generation Law, Krystian worked as an associate attorney for another firm in the Chicago suburbs, where he drafted sophisticated revocable living trusts and developed trust amendments in response to the SECURE Act.
Krystian lives in DuPage County with his wife. In his free time, Krystian enjoys supporting Chicago sports teams and his Villanova Wildcats, Illinois Fighting Illini, and Immaculate Conception Knights. He also has a lifelong enthusiasm for the martial arts - He has studied Karate, Modern Arnis, Muay Thai, and Aikijutsu.
At the dawn of the Great Resignation in 2020, Matt left behind the financial services industry to join the Generation Law team. Matt works with the partners focusing on business transformation and strategic planning to ensure that Generation Law offers a best-in-class client experience aimed at frictionless legal services with a personal connection.
Matt graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Arts and began his career in operations management at Freedman Anselmo Lindberg LLC. Eventually taking his talents to the financial services industry, Matt directed servicing design projects and business transformation initiatives. Fresh out of the corporate gauntlet, Matt brings a unique perspective to Generation Law having experience working in law firms of all sizes in tandem with demonstrated success in modern business management.
After high school, Matt had the ambition to become an attorney, however, he chose the path of least resistance and married an attorney instead. Four children later, Matt is a busy dad keeping track of hockey, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, baseball, ballet, and whatever the future may bring. In his free time, Matt enjoys riding his Ural sidecar motorcycle, listening to extreme heavy metal, and drinking lots of black coffee.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Ltd. in 2015 As Their Litigation Counsel
Melissa Johnson joined Generation Law, Ltd. in 2015 as their litigation counsel. After graduating from DePaul University College of Law, she spent a year practicing at the Law Offices of Howard Lee Schiff in Connecticut before spending seven years at Freedman Anselmo Lindberg LLC as a litigator and managing attorney.
Melissa has handled hundreds of contested motions and trials throughout her career. Her focus at Generation Law is on contested probates and guardianships for disabled adults with an emphasis on citation proceedings involving the financial exploitation of the elderly and presumptively void transfers. In addition, Melissa vigorously represents clients in the areas of trust litigation, including land trusts, elder law, estate planning, and estate administration.
Melissa is the immediate past president of the Illinois Chapter of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys, where she is the current Chair of the Litigative Committee, as well as serves on the Legislative Committee. She also serves on the Illinois State Bar Association's Elder Law and Trusts and Estates Committees. In addition, she is a frequent speaker for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) and the DuPage County Bar Association, of which she is also a member.
Both of Melissa's grandmothers are alive in their 90s, so there is a personal connection to making sure the elderly are well represented. She takes on each client's cause as if it were her own. By the end of the case, clients may feel that Melissa is part of their family.
She is married with four young children (three boys and a girl) and stays busy with them as a travel hockey team manager and self-admitted dance mom to a two-year-old ballerina. She loves to read and attend concerts, as well as offer up her sarcastic wit around the office. She is addicted to Diet Coke and will not start the day without one. It's what allows her to win all of her cases.