Jessica Wilson Law Office

Focus and practice areas

This Brooklyn office concentrates on estate planning for New York residents. The firm prepares wills, trusts, advance directives, healthcare proxies, and durable powers of attorney. It also handles elder law and Medicaid planning, special needs planning, and business succession. Article 81 guardianship proceedings are part of the work as well.

Estate planning covers the documents a person signs to direct what happens to property and medical care. A will names who receives assets and who administers the estate. A durable power of attorney lets a chosen agent handle finances if the signer cannot act. A healthcare proxy names someone to make medical decisions. In my opinion, keeping these instruments under one roof helps a client see how each one connects to the next.

Where the work reaches

Elder law and Medicaid planning deal with how care costs are paid as people age, and how assets are arranged within the rules that govern eligibility. Special needs planning uses trusts that hold funds for a person with a disability while protecting access to public benefits. Article 81 guardianship is a New York court process for appointing someone to manage the affairs of an adult who can no longer do so. Business succession sorts out who takes over a closely held company when an owner steps back or dies.

A trust holds property under terms the person sets, and it can take effect during life or after death. Trusts often sit alongside a will when a plan needs to manage assets over time or provide for a beneficiary who needs ongoing support. The firm's documents cover both the transfer of property and the handoff of decision-making authority.

Medicaid planning often turns on timing, because New York applies a look-back period to certain asset transfers when it reviews eligibility for long-term care. Planning ahead tends to leave a family more room than a last-minute application. Special needs trusts and pooled trusts are common tools when a beneficiary already receives government benefits.

Advance directives and decision-making

Advance directives include a health care proxy and a living will, and they speak for a person when illness or injury removes the ability to decide. New York recognizes a health care proxy that names an agent, together with instructions about treatment. Signing these documents early keeps the choices with people the signer picked. The office prepares these directives alongside wills and powers of attorney.

How the attorney came to this work

Jessica Wilson practiced for a decade as an assistant district attorney and a criminal defense attorney before moving into trust and estates law. She served in Kings County as an assistant district attorney. That criminal background is uncommon for an estate planning lawyer, and it points to a career spent in courtrooms before the turn to wills and trusts.

Through the Brooklyn District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit, Wilson investigated wrongful conviction claims. That work led to the exoneration of six individuals.

Estate and trust litigation can turn on documents and testimony, much like a criminal case. A decade of trial work gives a lawyer practice reading records and questioning witnesses, and those skills carry into a contested Surrogate's Court matter.

Education and admissions

Wilson earned a Juris Doctor from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2006 and a B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, in 2002. She is admitted in New York, and her admissions include the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. She belongs to the New York City Bar Association and the Brooklyn Bar Association.

Surrogate's Court and probate

The firm represents clients in Surrogate's Court across New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. This work includes both small probate petitions and contested proceedings. Each borough runs its own Surrogate's Court, so a Brooklyn resident with a relative who lived in Queens may face filings in more than one county. Probate and estate administration are a steady part of the firm's work.

Probate is the court process that confirms a will and appoints an executor. When someone dies without a will, estate administration follows a set order under New York law for who may serve and who inherits. Contested proceedings arise when heirs or creditors dispute a will or an accounting. These matters move through the Surrogate's Court in the county where the person lived. As a reviewer, I read the five-borough coverage as a practical fit for Brooklyn families whose relatives held property elsewhere in the city.

An executor's duties run through several steps: filing the will, notifying heirs, collecting and valuing assets, paying debts and taxes, and distributing what remains. Administration without a will follows a similar path, with the court naming an administrator under the state's order of priority. New York's voluntary administration rules offer a shorter route for small estates, while larger or disputed estates take longer.

How the office meets with clients

Wilson meets clients online or in person, and the office arranges house calls, video consultations, and family meetings. The office also offers appointments on weekends and weeknights. Wills and healthcare proxies must be signed and witnessed under New York rules, and evening or weekend slots give working clients a way to complete that step.

A first meeting usually reviews family circumstances, assets, and goals, and works out which documents fit. The drafting stage then turns those decisions into signed instruments. Video and in-person options give clients a choice in how they handle each step.

Fees and getting started

The firm offers a free consultation, which a client can take online or in person. For estate planning work, the office sets a flat fee rather than billing by the hour. A flat fee tells the client the cost of a will or a trust package before drafting begins, so the price stays fixed as questions and revisions come up. In my view, that arrangement suits routine planning, where the documents follow a known shape and the scope can be pinned down at the start.

Hourly billing tends to fit matters of uncertain length, such as a contested matter that may run for months. Estate planning usually moves through a set sequence instead, and a fixed price maps onto that sequence cleanly. A free first meeting also gives a person room to weigh both the plan and its cost before signing an engagement, which can matter to someone deciding whether to write a will for the first time.

A neighborhood office in Brooklyn

Jessica Wilson opened this practice as a neighborhood estate planning office in Brooklyn, and it sits at 221 Columbia Street. Clients reach the office by phone at (212) 739-1736 or through its website at jessicawilsonlaw.com. A single-attorney office of this kind means the lawyer who answers the first call is the same one who prepares the documents and handles the filings.

A local office shortens the trip for a client who lives in the borough, which counts for older clients and for families managing a relative's care. In my view, a neighborhood practice fits the work estate planning involves, because a person writing a will or setting up a trust often wants a lawyer close by whom they can sit with more than once. The Brooklyn base also lines up with a caseload centered on New York City residents.