Gary L. Birnbaum

Gary L. Birnbaum is the Phoenix Managing Member of Dickinson Wright/Mariscal Weeks, a 350-attorney firm with offices throughout the United States and in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Birnbaum has significant experience in all aspects of commercial and real estate litigation. Mr. Birnbaum graduated summa cum laude (B.A. with highest honors) from the State University of New York at Binghamton and obtained his law degree (magna cum laude) from Indiana University (Bloomington) where he served as Articles Editor of the Indiana Law Journal. Mr. Birnbaum has been elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa and Order of the Coif.

Mr. Birnbaum has been a contributing author of the Commercial Real Estate Transactions Practice Manual, published by the State Bar of Arizona, Nichols on Eminent Domain, published by Matthew Bender and Eminent Domain: 50 State Survey published by the American Bar Association (2012). He is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and Litigation Counsel of America. For many years he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® (currently in Business Litigation, Real Estate Litigation, Real Estate, Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law, Legal Malpractice Defense, Bet-the-Company Litigation, Arbitration and Mediation). He served for a number of years as Associate Dean at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University where he still teaches advanced courses on “Private Property Rights” and “The Valuation of Real Estate and Closely-Held Businesses.” Mr. Birnbaum has also served as a faculty member in Arizona State University’s transdisciplinary Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) program (and was a co-founder of that program) and as a member of the adjunct faculty at the James E. Rogers School of Law at the University of Arizona.

Among other honors, in 2009, The Best Lawyers in America® selected Mr. Birnbaum as the “Bet-the-Company” Litigator of the Year for Phoenix, Arizona. In 2010, the same publication selected Mr. Birnbaum as the “Alternative Dispute Resolution” Lawyer of the Year for Phoenix, Arizona. In 2012, he was selected as the “Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law” Lawyer of the Year for Phoenix. The same publication identified Mr. Birnbaum as the 2013 “Legal Malpractice Law – Defense” Lawyer of the Year. Most recently, he was selected as the “Arbitration” Lawyer of the Year for 2014.