Carlson & Blakeman, LLP

Focus and practice areas

Personal injury sits at the center of this practice. Around it, the firm groups estate work, immigration, business law, and real estate. The result is a general practice with an injury core rather than a single-issue shop.

Personal injury

The injury work is broad. It covers car, truck, and motorcycle accidents. It extends to pedestrian accidents and premises liability, including slip and fall claims. The firm also handles wrongful death and catastrophic injuries, with brain and spinal injuries named on its pages. Dog bite claims sit in the same group. That range means one office can take on both a minor collision and a claim that changes a family's life, which is a fair span for a firm this size.

Breadth like this cuts both ways for a reader. It signals the firm sees many kinds of injury claims, so an intake team likely knows the common questions. It also means a client with a rare or highly technical claim may want to ask how often the firm has handled that exact type.

Estate planning and probate

On the planning side, the firm lists wills, trusts, guardianships, and conservatorships. Guardianships and conservatorships deal with care and finances for people who cannot manage their own affairs, so this is sensitive work. The firm also handles estate administration once a plan is in motion. Probate and trust litigation appears as its own branded area, which tells a reader the firm takes on disputes as well as drafting. In my opinion, keeping both under one roof is a practical fit, since a family that plans with a firm may later need that same firm in court.

Immigration, business, and real estate

Immigration rounds out the mix, covering family and business-based matters, deportation defense, and naturalization. The family and business categories point to green card and visa work tied to relatives or employers. Deportation defense and naturalization sit at two ends of the process, from fighting removal to helping someone become a citizen. Business law and real estate fill the remaining slots. The pages give less detail on these than on injury work, so a reader learns the areas exist more than how the firm approaches them.

How the team is built

The firm names four founding partners: Darren R. Carlson, Clete W. Blakeman, Matthew J. Wurstner, and Julia A. Cryne. Darren R. Carlson is listed as retired. Blakeman, Cryne, and Wurstner hold the partner title today.

Four associate attorneys work alongside them: Andrea Klinetobe, Megan Cavanaugh, Atziri Valadez Campos, and Chandler Wichman. That puts seven active lawyers on the roster across the firm's practice areas. The named associates give the firm depth below the partner level, which matters for a practice that spans this many areas.

One note on the pages. Individual bios are short. A reader will find names and titles, but not law schools or admission years for the attorneys. That is worth keeping in mind if you like to research a lawyer's background before a first call.

Credentials the site reports

Clete W. Blakeman leads the firm's personal injury team. The site reports that he holds an AV Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell, a rating based on peer assessment of legal ability and ethical standards.

He is also listed as a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the American Board of Trial Advocates. Both are membership groups connected to trial practice. As a reviewer, I read these as signals that carry weight with other lawyers, while noting they describe one attorney rather than the full firm.

Reach across Nebraska and Iowa

The firm runs two offices in the Omaha metro area, one downtown and one in west Omaha. Two locations in one metro can help with access, since a client can pick whichever side of the city is easier to reach. Its attorneys are licensed in Nebraska and Iowa. That licensure lets the team represent clients across Nebraska and into western Iowa, which matters in a metro that sits close to the state line.

Services come in English and Spanish. For the Omaha area, that bilingual offering is a practical point for many households. The firm states it has served clients for over 30 years, though it stops short of naming a founding year.

What the listing shows, and what it leaves out

Taken together, the pages describe a settled general practice with a clear injury focus. The named partners and associates, plus the Nebraska and Iowa licensure, give a reader concrete facts to check. The two offices and the bilingual service widen who can reach the firm.

Some details are absent. The pages we reviewed carry no case results or settlement figures. Most attorney bios are brief, and the site gives no law schools or admission years. The firm's age is stated only as more than 30 years.

In my opinion, this listing reads as steady and low on spin. A prospective client can see what the firm does, who works there, and where it operates. For the finer points, such as an attorney's history or how a specific type of claim tends to go, a direct conversation with the firm is the way to fill the gaps.