Chepenik Trushin LLP

Focus and practice areas

The firm works from North Miami, Florida, and takes on estate planning, probate, trusts, and guardianship for individuals and businesses. Its lawyers draft wills, trusts, and advance directives. They also administer probate estates, trusts, and guardianships once those documents take effect. That range covers both the paperwork a client signs and the follow-through after.

Estate planning and administration are two halves of the same job. A will names who receives what and who runs the estate. A trust can hold assets during life and pass them without probate. Advance directives speak for a client who can no longer speak for themselves. The firm prepares all three, then handles the administration when the time comes.

The work reaches past planning into disputes. The firm handles will contests, probate litigation, and trust litigation. It adds elder law and Medicaid planning for clients weighing long-term care. Planned giving is part of the firm's work too, for people who want to direct gifts through their estates.

How the team is built

The attorneys page names ten lawyers across four tiers. Senior partners Bart H. Chepenik, Bradley H. Trushin, and Daniel F. Bachman lead the firm. Partners Dani Birman, Adam M. Nicoll, and Joshua Williams come next. Jacqueline Schneider holds the senior counsel title, and associates Iovanna Borjas Jimenez, Lauren Lackey, and Amanda Newberg complete the roster.

Paralegals and legal assistants back up the lawyers. The firm states that its team has more than 60 years of combined legal experience. In my opinion, the tiered structure tells a client something useful. A matter can move between a senior partner and an associate depending on what it needs, which keeps routine work efficient and the harder calls with the most seasoned lawyers.

A bench of this size also spreads coverage across the firm's fields. Estate planning, probate administration, and litigation each ask for different habits. A firm with senior partners, mid-level partners, and associates can put a drafting matter and a courtroom matter in different hands at the same time. That is the practical value of a roster built in layers.

Litigation across several fields

The firm states that it has represented clients on both the plaintiff and defense sides of transactions and litigation. That two-sided exposure matters in probate and trust fights. A lawyer who has argued for a contesting heir and also defended an estate has seen how each case is built.

Business and commercial litigation is part of the work too. The firm lists insurance defense, professional disciplinary defense, and attorney's fees and costs disputes among the matters it takes. As a reviewer, I read that spread as a sign the firm runs an active litigation department alongside its planning work.

Each of those areas draws on a different body of law. Insurance defense answers claims brought against a policyholder. Professional disciplinary defense answers a complaint against a licensed professional before a board. Fee and cost disputes decide who pays for the fight itself. Handling all three keeps a range of courtroom skills current within one firm.

How estate and trust matters proceed

Planning and probate run on different clocks, and it helps to see how each generally moves. Planning happens while a client is alive and able to sign, so the lawyer drafts the documents and the client executes them. Those papers then wait until a death or an incapacity brings them into force. The firm handles both the drafting and the administration that follows.

Probate starts after a death. A personal representative opens the estate in the county court, gathers the assets, pays the creditors, and distributes what remains. Guardianship runs on its own track when an adult can no longer manage money or health decisions, and a court appoints someone to act. Because the firm handles each of these stages, a client with one need often returns for another.

Will contests and trust litigation add a courtroom layer. A contest usually turns on capacity, undue influence, or the way a document was signed. These cases go before a probate judge and can involve medical records, witness testimony, and earlier drafts of the document.

When a guardianship is needed

Guardianship reaches a court when an adult can no longer make safe decisions and no other arrangement fits. A judge reviews evidence of capacity, often with input from a court-appointed committee, and decides how much authority to hand over. A guardian then reports to the court on the person's care and finances. The firm names guardianship among its areas, so a client facing this step has somewhere to bring it.

Elder law and Medicaid planning

Elder law covers the legal questions that come with age, and Medicaid planning is one of the larger ones. Long-term care is costly, and Medicaid eligibility turns on income and asset limits set by rule. A planner reviews what a client owns, then works within those rules well before care is needed. The firm names this as one of its areas, which fits work already focused on estates and trusts.

Medicaid planning often runs into a look-back period, a window during which the state reviews past transfers. Gifts made too close to an application can delay coverage. Lawyers in this area generally talk about starting early, which ties the planning back to the trusts and gifts drafted years before. The firm names Medicaid planning among its services, so a client can raise it as part of a wider estate plan.

Where the firm works

The firm serves clients in Miami, South Florida, and across the State of Florida. Miami-Dade and Broward counties are among the areas it names. Its office works in English and Spanish, which fits a client base drawn from a bilingual region. That language option can matter in estate work, where the terms of a will or trust need to be clear to the person signing.

The firm keeps profiles on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. The site names ten attorneys and does not state a founding year.

Business law in the directory record

Business law has its own practice category in the directory record. That designation is broader than the specific disputes described elsewhere in the review, although the record does not break the category into individual services. A business owner should therefore ask whether the firm handles the particular issue at hand before arranging a consultation. The category alone does not establish that every type of company matter falls within the firm's work.

This distinction is useful because a directory label can cover advisory work as well as matters that may later reach court. The available facts do not assign the business law category to a named attorney. They also do not state which industries the firm accepts. This reviewer would treat the listing as a reason to make a direct inquiry, with the scope of any proposed engagement confirmed by the firm.

Office and contact details

Chepenik Trushin LLP is both the listed name and the legal name in the record. That consistency helps when a prospective client checks an engagement letter or searches for the firm online. The office address is 12550 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 805, North Miami, Florida 33181. The suite number matters for anyone sending documents or planning an in-person visit.

The listed telephone number is (305) 981-8889. No separate numbers appear for individual lawyers or practice groups, so the record directs initial calls through one firm contact. Office hours and appointment procedures are not supplied. A caller should confirm those details directly, especially before visiting the Biscayne Boulevard office.

The firm's website uses the address miamifloridaestateplanninglawyer.com. Its domain name identifies Miami and estate planning at a glance, while the directory record uses the firm's legal name. Clients checking the site should expect that difference between the web address and the name on formal documents. The record supplies one website and one telephone number, which gives prospective clients two direct contact routes without assigning either route to a particular attorney.