Gary R. Gehlbach

Areas of Concentration:
Residential and Commercial Real Estate
Estate Planning
Estate and Trust Administration
Business Law

About Gary

Since 1978, Gary R. Gehlbach has focused his practice on real estate transactions and estate and business planning and administration. A Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (http://www.acrel.org), he routinely handles residential, farm and commercial real estate matters throughout Northern Illinois. Mr. Gehlbach’s estate planning clients range from the Chicago suburban area to Whiteside County, and from Jo Daviess County to Springfield.

His clients include banks, businesses, and individuals, and he represents them in a myriad of personal and business matters, including purchases and sales, real estate exchanges, and the formation of trusts, limited liability companies, corporations and other legal entities.

A native of Lincoln, Illinois, Mr. Gehlbach earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Knox College and graduated with high honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Mr. Gehlbach came to Dixon in 1979 after a stint with a boutique firm on La Salle Street in Chicago, where he handled large real estate transactions and estate plans. He is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association (http://www.isba.org/index.html), the American Bar Association (http://www.abanet.org/), the Lee County Bar Association, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (http://www.naela.org/).

For 22 years, Mr. Gehlbach served as editor or associate editor of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Real Property newsletter, for which he has published dozens of articles on real estate matters and for which he received the coveted Austin Fleming Award. His articles on law-related matters have also appeared in the American Bar Association’s Probate and Property magazine, the Illinois Bar Journal, the Trusts and Estates and other newsletters of the Illinois State Bar Association. He has presented at numerous seminars for attorneys on real estate and estate planning topics and has lectured extensively to community groups, primarily on estate planning and administration subjects.

Mr. Gehlbach is a current board member of the ISBA Bar Journal Editorial Board and has served as the Editor in Chief . He has served in various roles in the Real Estate Law Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association (http://www.isba.org/index.html). He has also chaired the Trusts and Estates Section Council of the ISBA, and was a long-time member of its Legislation Committee. He is a former member of the ISBA’s committee on the unauthorized practice of law and he has drafted several real estate and estate administration bills which have been enacted into law, including a re-write of Illinois’ Small Estates procedures.

A former Citizen of the Year for Dixon, Mr. Gehlbach has served as Chairman of the Lee County Industrial Development Association (http://www.dixonillinoischamber.com/), Vice President of an insurance company, and is currently Treasurer of his church. He previously served as President of the Dixon School Board and was a member of the board for 14 years. He served as President of the Dixon Family YMCA three times (http://www.dixonymca.org) and was President of the Dixon Library Board.

 Email Gary