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Gary I. Blackman

Partner and General Counsel

Gary Blackman is a founding member of Levenfeld Pearlstein, partner in the firm’s Litigation Group and the firm’s General Counsel.

Gary’s focus is on protecting the business assets of sophisticated and successful business owners and institutional clients, namely, their people, their products, their intellectual capital and their time. Gary is a firm leader in creating and promoting the philosophy that to be a great litigation attorney at Levenfeld Pearlstein you must first be a great business counselor and to do that you need to truly understand the client’s business, its owners and its long and short term goals. Gary has a unique ability among “every-day litigators” to analyze complex business disputes and provide his clients with a strategic road map to help them make informed decisions about what is best for both their business and for them personally.

As General Counsel to the firm, Gary also has developed a keen appreciation for the challenges facing institutional clients in striking the proper balance between risk and reward and how, through aggressive litigation, strategic decision-making, negotiation and personal relationships, he works to extract the best possible return to a client.

Gary’s practice is concentrated on complex business litigation, representing clients in corporate, real estate and financial services matters with a particular focus on trade secret and related non-competition and restrictive covenant issues; joint venture partnership and LLC disputes; debtor-creditor litigation, including bankruptcy and workouts; and representing individuals and financial institutions in securities brokerage litigation and arbitration in state and federal court and before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Gary Blackman Headshot

Additional Information

Education & Admissions

Education
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, B.S.
  • DePaul University College of Law, J.D.
Bar Admissions
  • Illinois
Court Admissions
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Memberships

  • Illinois State Bar Association
  • Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago - Trade Secrets Committee
  • ABA Intellectual Property Section - Trade Secrets and Interference with Contracts Committee

Awards

  • Illinois Super Lawyer, 2009-2024
  • Leading Lawyer, Leading Lawyers Network, 2007-2008, 2016

Q&A

  • What is your favorite quote?
    “What you resist persists” (Carl Jung), generally interpreted to mean that when you resist or fight against some true aspect of yourself, that quality persists or gets worse. It is only when you embrace who you really are that true change can come. Easier said than done of course.

  • What is your favorite book?
    Mawson’s Will, which is a survival story of an explorer left alone for weeks in the Antarctic in 1911 and the endurance and cunning needed to survive. It’s amazing what some people can do. I complain when my office gets too cold.

  • What was your first pet?
    A scrawny beagle I found in a forest in Wisconsin when I was 10 at overnight camp. Without telling my parents, I brought it home on the camp bus. 2 weeks later the dog had 6 puppies. My parents were not happy. That could never happen today.

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