History

Asteak Law Offices opened in 1974 and maintains offices in Easton and Nazareth, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The attorneys and staff specialize in litigation, including high-profile, complex criminal, personal injury and malpractice cases; divorce, custody and support matters; as well as zoning and land use disputes. The firm has broad experience in State and Federal Courts and is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Gary Neil Asteak, Esquire

Gary Neil Asteak has been on a lifelong passionate quest in the search for justice.  Whether it be in criminal court, divorce court, or the Supreme Court, arguing with insurance adjusters, pleading with zoning hearing boards, or just talking common sense to a jury, Asteak has never lost sight of that mission.

Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and educated in the Easton Area School District, he graduated Franklin & Marshall College in 1971 and Dickinson School of Law in 1974. Having studied in Bologna, Italy, at the John Hopkins School of International Studies, and traveled the world, he returned home in the Fall of 1974, finding the grass no greener anywhere else, to set up practice and raise a family.

Over the years, he has served as President of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania, Northampton County Bar Association, and Lehigh Valley Legal Services. 

Asteak has served on the Board of Directors and as Solicitor to many community-based organizations, among them Easton Area Neighborhood Center, Lehigh Valley Legal Services, Easton Elks Lodge, Liberty Hose Fire Company, Klecknersville Rangers, Bushkill Township Fire Company, Northampton County Youth Field Day Foundation, Stockertown Rod & Gun Club, Easton Fish & Game, Bangor Elks Lodge, House of Delegates of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and others.

Asteak currently serves on the Board of Directors of North Penn Legal Services, Jacobsburg Historical Society, and ex officio Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  He has been an active member of the Clinton Budd Palmer American Inn of Courts and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Having learned a lesson or two over his many years at the Bar, Asteak regularly conducts seminars and teaches courses on municipal law, criminal law, trial tactics and strategies, and 21st Century litigation at the local, state and national level. He has served as course planner for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute Annual Criminal Law Symposium, was the founder and program director of the Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania Trial Skills and Appellate Skills Program at Dickinson School of Law, and has been on the faculty and lectured at Northampton Community College, National Association of Sentencing Advocates, Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania, Arizona Public Defender Association, Federal Defenders Association, West Virginia Public Defender Association, and the Northampton County Bar Association.

Asteak has appeared as a legal analyst on criminal law topics on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, NPR Talk of the Nation and on talk radio stations throughout the country, has been named in Philadelphia Magazine as one of Pennsylvania’s Super Lawyers in criminal defense, has received the Martindale-Hubbell rating of AV, is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, and has been honored by the Pennsylvania Public Defender Association with the Gideon Award for outstanding service as a Public Defender.

Personal Profile

Asteak has been married since 1974 to his best friend and mother of his two daughters. All three of the most important women in his life have been successful in their own right which has been a great source of pride and satisfaction. They have shared such journeys as trekking in Tibet, kayaking in Glacier Bay, Alaska, sailing in the Galapagos, exploring the pyramids of Egypt, chasing giraffes in Tanzania, and Earthwatch projects involving searching for Mayan ruins in Guatemala, mapping and recording Anasazi rock art in the canyons of Utah, and recording folk songs and stories in rural Russia. They have crawled through the Chu Chi tunnels in Vietnam, got lost in Beijing, skied and hiked the Rockies and the Alps, hiked Patagonia, and recently the Machu Picchu Trail.

A few years ago, he successfully ran with the bulls in Pamplona and is still here to tell you about it. Having spent time in a Buddhist Monastery in Nepal, Asteak has also learned the value of the sound of silence. Needless to say, clients look forward to his annual Christmas cards which have become collector’s items.

He wears cowboy boots, does not own a pair of shoes, and would rather wear his blue jeans than his closet full of custom made suits.

He has been a boxing promoter and manager, produced and directed an MTV rock video, has season tickets to the New York Jets, performed in local theatre productions of Fiddler on the Roof and Side by Side by Sondheim, has had a Gallery Show of his photographs in New York City, and is currently occupying a small farm, keeping bees and raising chickens in whatever little spare time he has.

Education

DICKINSON SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor, 1974

FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE
B.A., Government, 1971