Managing Partner Neil Getnick writes upon the passing of G. Robert Blakey, drafter of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and former counsel to Getnick Law:
It is with sadness that I write upon the passing of G. Robert Blakey at the age of 90. He was my teacher, mentor, colleague, co-counsel, and most of all, my friend. When I became a student in his criminal law and procedure class during my first year at Cornell Law School, Professor Blakey had already served as an Assistant United States Attorney during President Kennedy’s administration in Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, and later as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedure where he drafted the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and the Title III electronic surveillance law. By my second year at law school, he was serving as the Chief Counsel and Director of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations investigating the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
After graduating law school, I became an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan and during my tenure there I was further schooled by Professor Blakey at the Cornell Institute on Organized Crime learning about the nuances of RICO civil and criminal prosecution. Upon entering private practice, I turned to the civil prosecution of commercial fraud and began co-counseling civil RICO cases with Professor Blakey, who by now was teaching at Notre Dame Law School. Later he joined as counsel to Getnick & Getnick LLP (now known as Getnick Law). In 1996, writing about one of our cases, The New York Times described the law firm as “the home of G. Robert Blakey, the noted racketeering law expert.” Professor Blakey went on to serve as “of counsel” in all our subsequent civil RICO cases.
During that time, at some point I dropped the “Professor Blakey,” and started calling him Bob as our friendship blossomed. Celebrating his eightieth birthday at his Arizona home with friends and family, I noticed that he had assembled a collection of materials honoring Saint Thomas Moore. Inspired by that discovery, I tracked down a two-volume 19th Century first edition of Moore and sent it to him as a birthday gift. About a week later, I checked to see that it had arrived. “Oh yes,” he said, “it came a couple of days ago and I’m already through the first volume.” I expressed my surprise pointing out that the biography was in Latin. He replied, in words or substance, “It’s good to know that my parochial school education continues to serve me well to this day.”
