Whitman H. Brisky focuses primarily on legal work for businesses and professionals in business and commercial law. His work at Mauck & Baker includes forming corporations, contracts, financing, employee issues, trademarks and copyrights, commercial litigation, business bankruptcy, real estate, and corporate transactions.
Although working with businesses and corporations, Whitman considers personal client relationships important. “My clients are almost all my friends, and many of my friends are my clients. My goal is to have long term client relationships of trust and confidence,” Whitman says. “I believe in honesty, ethics, and fair dealing. I always try to demonstrate that there is something different about my practice because of my faith in Jesus. That is one reason I joined Mauck & Baker and expanded my practice to do the same kinds of work for religious organizations." One of his specialties is guiding churches through splits and conflicts, whether denominational or inter-congregational.
Whitman was born in Middletown, New York, and received his undergraduate degree in 1972 from Cornell University where he majored in history and minored in math. He then graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1975 where he served on the editorial board of the Northwestern University Law Review. He was admitted to practice in 1975, and joined the firm of Walsh, Case, Coale & Brown. In 1989, Brisky became a founding shareholder of Lindenbaum Coffman Kurlander Brisky & Grippo, Ltd. where he practiced until joining Mauck & Baker in June 2005.
Although Brisky studied Anglo-American history of the 16th through the 18th centuries while in college, learning basic Reformed theology and its effect on the societies of that time, he had no personal relationship with Christ. He was brought to the Lord one Sunday in the late seventies after wandering into a Presbyterian church where the pastor preached a sermon entitled “Has Anyone Been Saved Here Lately?” At the end of the service Brisky could respond enthusiastically, “Yes, me!”
Whitman is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, Christian Legal Society, and the Commercial Law League of America and is an Alliance Defending Freedom ally. Whit has worked within several mainline denominations to uphold Biblical values and defend the rights of churches and pastors including the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, and the Episcopal Church.
Married since 1979, he lives in Glenview, Illinois with his wife, Judy. They have three grown daughters and two granddaughters.