Derek BerekDavid A. Berek is a Partner in private practice with Baker & McKenzie LLP in Chicago. He focuses his practice on Family Office Structuring and Administration, Wealth Transfer Planning, Income Tax Planning, and Trusts & Estates. Prior to re-entering the practice of law, Mr. Berek was a Director at a global private bank in its family office group as a family CFO, and ran the Wealth Planning group in the Central U.S. region advising clients of the private bank on family office and wealth transfer techniques. Prior experience includes practicing trusts and estates law with large- and mid-size law firms; income, transfer tax and trust planning with two big 4 public accounting firms; and, estate tax compliance and administration with a large Chicago-based trust company. Mr. Berek is currently the editor of the two-volume treatise Illinois Estate Planning, Will Drafting and Estate Administration Forms with Practical Commentary published by LexisNexis. Mr. Berek is also an adjunct professor at DePaul University where he teaches Estate Planning; Estate, Gift and GST Tax; and Income Taxation of Decedents, and Estates and Trusts in the Masters of Science in Taxation program; and previously at The John Marshall Law School where he taught Fiduciary Income Taxation and Advanced Income Taxation in the LL.M. Graduate Tax program. He is the co-Director of a new Masters of Science in Wealth Management offered through the Finance Department at DePaul University where he teaches Transfer Tax Planning for Wealth Management, and Family Office and Multigenerational Estate Planning. Mr. Berek earned a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy degree from DePaul University, a Juris Doctorate degree, cum laude (Law Review, Moot Court), and an LL.M. in Employee Benefits degree, with honors, from The John Marshall Law School. Active with bar associations, he is a John S. Nolan Tax Law Fellow of the American Bar Association, Tax Section, a former chair of the Tax Practice Management Subcommittee, current chair of the Fiduciary Income Tax Subcommittee, and a former Current Developments reporter of the Estate and Gift Tax Subcommittee. He is past chair of the Illinois State Bar Association Trusts & Estates Section Council, and a past co-chair of the Chicago Bar Association Estate Planning Committee Young Lawyers Section. Mr. Berek has been recognized by various independent organizations on their lists of top attorneys. Leading Lawyers Network named Mr. Berek one of the Top Attorneys in Illinois in two areas: (1) Trusts, Wills & Estate Planning, and (2) Tax Law (Individual). Mr. Berek is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Florida and has been awarded an AV® Preeminent™ 5.0 out of 5 peer review rating by Martindale-Hubbell for both legal abilities and ethical standards. Mr. Berek is also a Certified Public Accountant (Illinois), and a Certified Financial Planner.™ |
