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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