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ATTORNEYS<br />

TO WATCH<br />

MAGAZINE<br />

IN 2017<br />

SERIES<br />

L-R Nicholas Smith, Andrew Beal, Ed Buckley, Rachel Berlin, Brian J. Sutherland<br />

BUCKLEY BEAL, LLP<br />

The Go to Plaintiff’s Law Firm<br />

By Jan Jaben-Eilon<br />

Prominent on Edward D. Buckley’s office wall, along with his<br />

Emory University School of Law diploma, is a photograph<br />

of Robert F. Kennedy, a sketch of Albert Einstein and a small<br />

drawing of the late John Sirica, Chief Judge for the United<br />

States District Court in the District of Columbia who presided over<br />

the Watergate trial. The drawing was sketched by John Ehrlichman in<br />

his Watergate trial notebook. The former adviser to President Richard<br />

Nixon subsequently went to prison for conspiracy, obstruction of<br />

justice and perjury.<br />

Not everyone knows that Ehrlichman moved to Atlanta after he<br />

was released from prison. Years later, he was working for a company<br />

in a non-lawyer position. He hired Buckley to represent him in an age<br />

discrimination case after he was fired. The case was settled outside<br />

the court. Ehrlichman was happy with the result and gifted the sketch<br />

to Buckley.<br />

As far as Buckley - now managing partner at Buckley Beal - is concerned,<br />

Ehrlichman was just one of the many interesting clients he has<br />

represented over his years as an attorney specializing in employment<br />

and civil rights law. “I’ve represented a number of news personalities,<br />

war correspondents, as well as a lot of executives about contracts<br />

and separations. I am never, ever bored,” says the Atlanta native who<br />

has been ranked as one of “America’s leading labor & employment<br />

lawyers” by Chambers and Partners, as a “SuperLawyer” by Atlanta<br />

Magazine and as a member of Georgia’s “Legal Elite” for several years<br />

by Georgia Trend Magazine.<br />

Buckley attributes his choice of careers to being “good at reading,<br />

writing and running my mouth – all things lawyers need,” he laughs.<br />

14 | www.atlantaattorneymagazine.com<br />

Photo by Jeremy Adamo<br />

But he says he fell into employment law six years into his practice, after<br />

he faced off against a highly skilled plaintiff ’s attorney who later became<br />

a U.S. District Court Judge. After their case was settled, the lawyer<br />

referred plaintiff cases to him, which he found that he preferred.<br />

“I like representing individuals and helping them vindicate their<br />

rights. It’s more interesting than representing companies. I like representing<br />

the underdog, people who feel voiceless. Companies generally<br />

have a voice,” he explains. “I have represented steelworkers, hotel<br />

laundry workers, dock workers. We run the gamut. One time, I represented<br />

a restaurant worker and after I helped him, I thought this<br />

guy was going to wring my hand off at my shoulder. Most people I<br />

represent aren’t famous celebrities.”<br />

Currently, he’s representing an assistant principal in a religious<br />

discrimination case against a Cobb County School district and<br />

Asian-American, Latino, and Black voters in Gwinnett County in a<br />

voting rights case. “I have a low threshold for fun. I have fun at work.<br />

I work with interesting, smart people.”<br />

One of those people is Andrew Beal, with whom he has been<br />

friends since either the third or fourth grade, depending on which<br />

one you ask. Their firms merged in July 2015, with Beal bringing his<br />

business litigation practice to the firm. “It’s good to be friends with<br />

your law partner,” says Buckley. Beal represents business owners and<br />

shareholders in a myriad of business situations, including breach<br />

of contract, buying and selling of businesses, contract disputes and<br />

mergers and acquisitions. Recently, the firm launched its mediation<br />

practice under the leadership of partner Nicholas P. Smith. Buckley<br />

says that the firm may add other areas of practice in the future. “But

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