Gary A. Debele

Gary Debele is a 1987 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and since 1991 has focused his practice on a uniquely broad and all encompassing view of family law. Through his membership in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the International Academy of Family Law Attorneys, and the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, he has built relationships with professionals in his areas of family law expertise across the United States and around the globe. In addition to managing his own practice, Gary also serves as the Chair of the Family Law group.

Gary’s family law practice includes not only the usual areas of divorce, custody, and parentage, but also several specialized areas that many family law practitioners avoid. He has represented clients with large and complex closely held family businesses, often with accompanying complex estate planning issues. He has represented clients in divorces and custody disputes with interstate and international issues. With particular expertise in the interplay of juvenile and family court, he can address child protection issues that might arise in various family court proceedings.

In addition to assisting with family and relationship breakdowns, Gary has a sophisticated family formation practice which has him working with all types of adoptions—from the simplest stepparent adoption to complex interstate and international adoptions, and even contested adoptions and adoptions that are dissolving. He also has significant experience working with the Indian Child Welfare Act. Gary works with all facets of assisted reproduction and surrogacy, including drafting donor contracts for all varieties of genetic material and also gestational carrier and traditional surrogate contracts including working to establish parentage in all of those situations, whether within the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, across the country or internationally.

Gary has a robust tribal court practice that includes family law, child welfare matters, and conservatorships and guardianships involving tribal members. In addition, Gary also assists clients with appeals in state and tribal appellate courts.

Gary assists clients involved in assisted reproduction processes with estate planning for small to moderate sized estates, and the drafting of guardianship provisions for children. His family law practice also includes the drafting and negotiating of prenuptial, postnuptial, or cohabitation agreements. Additionally, Gary is a certified mediator and member of the Collaborative Law Institute, assisting clients who wish to avoid litigation.