Mr. Blackwell is a former federal prosecutor who is experienced in all facets of criminal and civil litigation. Raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mr. Blackwell attended LSU Law School and was a Senior Editor for the Louisiana Law Review. Mr. Blackwell graduated in the top ten percent of his law school class and was awarded the prestigious Order of the Coif upon graduation. After law school, Mr. Blackwell served his country by entering active duty in the United States Air Force as a Judge Advocate General (JAG). While in the Air Force, Captain Blackwell practiced a wide variety of law to include contract law, family law, environmental law, and labor law. However, the bulk of his work was in criminal law. Captain Blackwell served first as a military prosecutor, then as a military defense counsel. While as a military defense counsel, Captain Blackwell tried the most cases and had the highest acquittal rate of all military defense counsel in the Air Force and as a result, was recognized as the Eastern Circuit Trial Lawyer of the Year for 2003 and was awarded an Air Force Achievement Medal.

After his service commitment was up, Mr. Blackwell left active duty and moved to Dallas, Texas where he worked in the litigation division of the law firm Andrews Kurth. While at Andrews Kurth, Mr. Blackwell practiced all aspects of corporate civil litigation to include toxic tort litigation, insurance litigation, environmental litigation, and corporate litigation. Although happy at Andrews Kurth, the pull of home was too much and Mr. Blackwell left Andrews Kurth to accept a position as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Blackwell prosecuted a variety of crimes to include high level narcotics offenses, mail and wire fraud, arson, firearms offenses, public corruption, social security fraud, bankruptcy fraud, and other violent and white collar crimes. Despite carrying one of the highest case loads within the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Blackwell never lost a jury trial as a federal prosecutor. Mr. Blackwell remained in that office until August of 2010 when Mr. Blackwell joined the law firm of Hymel, Davis, and Petersen. Mr. Blackwell is licensed in both Louisiana and Texas.