Gary Debele ’87

Licensed in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as being admitted to several tribal and federal courts, Gary A. Debele is a shareholder with the Minneapolis-based law firm of Messerli & Kramer, P.A. where he is the department chair of the Family Law Practice Group.  He is a 1984 graduate of St. Olaf College and a 1987 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School.  He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School where he teaches a capstone family law course. Gary devotes his practice primarily to family law, juvenile law, assisted reproduction, and adoption, with significant expertise in third party custody,  the interplay of juvenile and family court, the drafting of cohabitation, prenuptial, and post-nuptial agreements, and family and child welfare issues in tribal courts.  With an extensive appellate practice, he has been involved in 10 cases before the Minnesota Supreme Court and more than 30 cases before the Minnesota Court of Appeals, with several noted decisions in the areas of third party custody, adoption, and custody relocation. He is one of a few family law attorneys selected to serve as mediator with the Minnesota Court of Appeals family court mediation program. Gary has also participated in several tribal court appeals and he has filed several certiorari petitions with the United States Supreme Court. Gary and another attorney were instrumental in drafting the first version of Minnesota’s Birth Father’s Adoption Registry statute.  He served as a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Juvenile Protection Rules Committee from 2002 to 2006, which included the drafting of the Rules of Adoption Procedure for the state of Minnesota.  He served on a committee working to revise the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Child-Focused Parenting Time Guide and another committee considering revisions to Minnesota’s Parentage Act based on the latest version of the Uniform Parentage Act. Gary has been repeatedly designated as a Super Lawyer, a Top 100 Lawyer, and a Top 40 Family Law Attorney by Law and Politics.  In 2007 and 2009 he was named one of the Top 10 attorneys in the state of Minnesota by that same publication.   In 2010 he was named an Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (IAML), and the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (AAAA).  He has long been listed in the Best Lawyers in America.  He was a founder and then the first president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.  Gary received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1991 in American legal and constitutional history; his advisor was noted legal and constitutional historian Paul L. Murphy.  The title of Gary’s master’s thesis was “The Origins and Early Years of American Juvenile Courts: the Impact of Changes in American Domestic Relations Law and Criminal Procedure from 1880 to 1920.”  For further information, including a detailed list of his publications, presentations, and appellate decisions, see Gary’s profile on his firm’s website.