ATLANTA | VOLUME 6 ISSUE 3
www.atlantaattorneymagazine.com
MAGAZINE
EDWARD D. BUCKLEY
PLAINTIFF’S LAWYER OF THE MONTH
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ATTORNEYS
TO WATCH
MAGAZINE
IN 2017
SERIES
L-R Nicholas Smith, Andrew Beal, Ed Buckley, Rachel Berlin, Brian J. Sutherland
BUCKLEY BEAL, LLP
The Go to Plaintiff’s Law Firm
By Jan Jaben-Eilon
Prominent on Edward D. Buckley’s office wall, along with his
Emory University School of Law diploma, is a photograph
of Robert F. Kennedy, a sketch of Albert Einstein and a small
drawing of the late John Sirica, Chief Judge for the United
States District Court in the District of Columbia who presided over
the Watergate trial. The drawing was sketched by John Ehrlichman in
his Watergate trial notebook. The former adviser to President Richard
Nixon subsequently went to prison for conspiracy, obstruction of
justice and perjury.
Not everyone knows that Ehrlichman moved to Atlanta after he
was released from prison. Years later, he was working for a company
in a non-lawyer position. He hired Buckley to represent him in an age
discrimination case after he was fired. The case was settled outside
the court. Ehrlichman was happy with the result and gifted the sketch
to Buckley.
As far as Buckley - now managing partner at Buckley Beal - is concerned,
Ehrlichman was just one of the many interesting clients he has
represented over his years as an attorney specializing in employment
and civil rights law. “I’ve represented a number of news personalities,
war correspondents, as well as a lot of executives about contracts
and separations. I am never, ever bored,” says the Atlanta native who
has been ranked as one of “America’s leading labor & employment
lawyers” by Chambers and Partners, as a “SuperLawyer” by Atlanta
Magazine and as a member of Georgia’s “Legal Elite” for several years
by Georgia Trend Magazine.
Buckley attributes his choice of careers to being “good at reading,
writing and running my mouth – all things lawyers need,” he laughs.
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Photo by Jeremy Adamo
But he says he fell into employment law six years into his practice, after
he faced off against a highly skilled plaintiff ’s attorney who later became
a U.S. District Court Judge. After their case was settled, the lawyer
referred plaintiff cases to him, which he found that he preferred.
“I like representing individuals and helping them vindicate their
rights. It’s more interesting than representing companies. I like representing
the underdog, people who feel voiceless. Companies generally
have a voice,” he explains. “I have represented steelworkers, hotel
laundry workers, dock workers. We run the gamut. One time, I represented
a restaurant worker and after I helped him, I thought this
guy was going to wring my hand off at my shoulder. Most people I
represent aren’t famous celebrities.”
Currently, he’s representing an assistant principal in a religious
discrimination case against a Cobb County School district and
Asian-American, Latino, and Black voters in Gwinnett County in a
voting rights case. “I have a low threshold for fun. I have fun at work.
I work with interesting, smart people.”
One of those people is Andrew Beal, with whom he has been
friends since either the third or fourth grade, depending on which
one you ask. Their firms merged in July 2015, with Beal bringing his
business litigation practice to the firm. “It’s good to be friends with
your law partner,” says Buckley. Beal represents business owners and
shareholders in a myriad of business situations, including breach
of contract, buying and selling of businesses, contract disputes and
mergers and acquisitions. Recently, the firm launched its mediation
practice under the leadership of partner Nicholas P. Smith. Buckley
says that the firm may add other areas of practice in the future. “But
we won’t become a mega-firm. I know everyone’s name here and I want it to
stay that way.”
Indeed, he peppers his conversations about his law practice, and his life,
with the names of his junior partners, associates and staff. He explains that
when he is hiring for his firm, he looks at “whether this person is someone
I’d like to spend a lot of time with, someone who could potentially become a
partner. They have to be good writers and I ask whether they are a person I
can see carrying a case to court, and do I feel they have the moral principles
I want our firm to reflect. Can I trust their word?”
Notably, when asked what characteristic is most important for an attorney
to possess, he responds, simply, “Credibility. It’s very important for a lawyer
to be truthful. You have to be credible with the courts and opposing counsel.
If your reputation is for shading the truth, then people won’t believe you.
Judges know which lawyers they can trust.”
It’s also essential for attorneys to contribute to their communities, Buckley
stresses. “You need to give back if you are going to be a lawyer. You will be
working in a community and should be doing things for free sometimes. Not
everyone can afford an attorney.” He suggests that attorneys find their “pro
bono sweet spot” that will excite them. “The worse thing is to be a slave to
billable hours. Then you just become a bean counter.”
Buckley discovered the “sweet spot” that whetted his appetite is water.
Winner of the IEEE Gold Humanitarian and Pace Award in 2009, named
as an Ambassador for the Poor by nonprofit Food for the Poor in 2014 and
winner of the 11 Alive Community Service Award in 2015, Buckley is the
founder of the non-profit water charity, Water Life Hope, which helps people
in the Caribbean gain access to clean drinking water. Combining fundraising
and his own money, he has helped raise more than $1 million to build
more than 330 wells and provide more than one-half million people with
drinking water. “We’re trying to install water systems so kids can grow up
healthy,” he says.
“I started in Jamaica and Honduras, but then I talked to relief workers and
asked, what is the most economically disadvantaged country in this hemisphere.
Haiti has a combination of bad climate, harsh geography and bad
politics. I believe that water is a cornerstone human right,” explains Buckley.
The charity has a low overhead both because it works with an existing NGO
(non-governmental organization) and because it operates out of his law firm.
Many of his colleagues travel to Haiti and work with him there.
Fighting for the underdog comes naturally to Buckley. “My parents were
involved in the labor movement,” he says. “My dad, Ferdinand Buckley, frequently
worked as a civil rights attorney. He once resigned from an attorneys’
organization because they didn’t allow membership to Maynard Jackson
(who later became Atlanta mayor) and William Alexander (later civil rights
attorney, judge and Georgia legislator). Our dinner table was a platform for
political conversations. I rode with my dad and passed out flyers in support
of Andy Young for Congress. When I was run off of porches, he told me to
just go out and distribute more flyers. My mother was also involved in human
rights and when my parents were well into their seventies, they were arrested
for marching against the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia.”
Others who inspired Buckley along the way were English and political science
high school teachers who insisted he learn how to write. An English-literature
graduate, Buckley is a voracious reader. “I read until I can’t keep my
eyes open.” He also just finished writing a novel.
Buckley cites attorney John David Jones as another important mentor in
his life. “He was the opposite of me politically, but he was a great story-teller.
He would talk to juries as if he were their grandfather. I feel like I’m a product
of some wonderful people, many of who are around me now,” adds Buckley,
who obviously still learns from and thrives from people surrounding him.
“We’re all a work in progress.” Introspectively, he adds: “I’m late everywhere
I go because I enjoy wherever I am!”
AT A GLANCE
Founding Partner, Buckley Beal, LLP
Promenade, Suite 900, 1230 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
Phone: (404) 781-1100
www.buckleybeal.com
Firm Composition
• Senior/Managing Partners: Ed Buckley
and Andrew Beal
• Junior Partners: Brian Sutherland, Nicholas Smith
and Rachel Berlin
• Associates: Thomas J. Mew IV, T. Brian Green,
Pamela Palmer, Amy Cheng, Isaac Raisner
• Of Counsel: Michael Kramer
• Staff: Fatisha Martinez, Glenda Puckett, Greg Lash,
Jemetria Dudley, Karen Lucarelli, Linda Larson,
Michael Glosup, Pam Rymin, Saida Latigue and
Steve Henricksen
Practice Areas:
Employment and Business Law
Community/Civic Involvement:
For the last twelve years, Ed has been involved in raising
funds and coordinating projects with NGOs to put
potable water systems in place in various locations
in the Caribbean including Haiti, Jamaica, Honduras
and Nicaragua. To date, he has raised over $1,000,000,
including, in part, fees he has earned in employment and
civil rights cases. His non-profit, Water-Life-Hope, Inc.,
has built water systems that serve over 450,000 people.
Presently, many of those systems are serving people
displaced by the earthquake and hurricane in Haiti.
Pro-Bono Activities:
Approx. 2-3 pro-bono cases/year
Professional Affliations and Honors
• IEEE Gold Humanitarian and Pace Award (2009)
• Atlanta Bar Association Professionalism Award (2009)
• Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating
of “AV” Preeminent
• 11 Alive Community Service Award (2015)
• Food for the Poor: Ambassador for the Poor
Award (2014)
• Georgia Super Lawyer (2005 through 2017)
• Leadership Atlanta Class of 2013
Professional Memberships
• State Bar of Georgia (Labor and Employment Section)
• Atlanta Bar Association (Labor and Employment
Section; Past Chair, Secretary, Treasurer)
• Georgia Affiliate of the National Employment Lawyers
Association (Past Chair, Secretary, Treasurer)
• National Employment Lawyers Association
• American Bar Association (Labor and Employment
Section)
• Federal Bar Association
(Labor and Employment Section)
• Fellow of the College of Labor and
Employment Lawyers
• Georgia Trial Lawyers Association
VOL. 6 ISSUE 3 ATLANTA ATTORNEY MAGAZINE | 15
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