A. Martin Wickliff, Jr., Excels in His Labor and Employment Practice at Epstein Becker Green Wickliff & Hall
By Kenneth Davis
A. Martin Wickliff, Jr., decided early in life that he wanted to enter the legal field. He said when he was young, he worked in his father's law office, and being in that environment cultivated his interest in law.
"When I was in high school and in college, I worked in my father's law office as a staff person," he said. "And I did a lot of bail bonding and typing and interviewing of witnesses, and so it sort of grew on me. My father wanted me to go to medical school, and I tried that, as a premed student, and I just didn't like it. So I thought deep down in my heart going to law school is what I wanted to do."
Wickliff is now a name partner at prominent national law firm Epstein Becker Green Wickliff & Hall and has a successful labor and employment practice in the firm's Houston office. He has extensive experience in litigating a wide range of employment and labor issues in state and federal courts, including class actions and multiple-plaintiff lawsuits. He is also chair of the firm's labor steering committee, serves on the firm's board of directors, and manages the Houston office of the firm.
Wickliff recently represented Texaco in a worker's compensation retaliation case in the Houston State Court (Lucy Lafreniere v. Texaco, Inc.), and in August of last year, he received a jury verdict in Texaco's favor.
In another recent notable matter, he obtained a significant settlement for his client in an employee-raiding/trade-secret case.
He discussed what he likes most about his job:
"I enjoy the practice of law and being associated with a national firm that has a national administration that really has allowed me to practice law more so than when I had my own firm," Wickliff said. "So that's the main thing—that it has allowed me to do and practice what I went to school to learn, and that is to be a trial lawyer."
Wickliff studied political science as an undergraduate at the University of St. Thomas in Houston and graduated in 1970. He earned his law degree, with honors, from Texas Southern University School of Law in 1973, and in 1974, he received his Master of Laws in Labor Law from New York University School of Law in Manhattan.
In 1975, Wickliff began working for Fulbright & Jaworski in its Houston office, where his practice focused on labor and employment matters; he made partner in his seventh year at the firm. After 10 years at Fulbright, he left to join Houston firm Mayor, Day & Caldwell as a partner. At Mayor Day, Wickliff headed up the firm's labor and employment practice.
Wickliff left Mayor Day after working there for seven years to open his own firm with attorney Alton Hall; he had previously worked with Hall at Fulbright & Jaworski and Mayor, Day & Caldwell. They opened their firm on May 1, 1990, in Houston. The firm, which was named Wickliff & Hall, eventually grew to employ 31 attorneys with offices in three different cities: Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. The practice focused on labor and employment and general litigation. Wickliff, who is African-American, said it was the largest minority-owned law firm in Texas at the time.
Even though the firm had had 12 solid years of success, the two merged their practice with Epstein Becker & Green in June of 2002.
"We decided at a point in 2002 that it would probably be in everyone's best interest if we became associated with a national firm that emphasized labor and employment and commercial litigation," Wickliff explained. "It had a lot of national clients, and we did not simply want to be a regional firm. We thought we had sufficient national clients that would benefit from being associated with a firm like Epstein Becker & Green. So it provided more exposure for the clients by using one firm around the country, and that national platform really has helped us in Texas, as well as the clients who have business in other municipalities."
At its Texas offices in Houston and Dallas, the firm is referred to as Epstein Becker Green Wickliff & Hall (it is a minority-owned, woman-owned firm in Texas), and at its other offices, it's called Epstein Becker & Green.
Wickliff discussed some of the highlights of his career to date:
"Having been a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, having been a partner in Mayor, Day & Caldwell, and having owned my own firm have been big highlights," he said. "And having been very satisfied in my practice of law and the way I've been able to win a lot of notable cases in court before juries and judges were also some of the highlights."
Wickliff said he occasionally speaks to law students on the campus of Texas Southern University. He discussed what he talks to students about:
"Just giving the students the benefit of all my experiences and letting them know where I came from and how you can do whatever you set your mind to do," he said. "And just imparting my experiences to them so they can see that there's a bright future for minority lawyers in this country."
He had the following advice for law students:
"Learn all that you can in law school and get yourself a good mentor when you start practicing law."
Wickliff said his biggest influence has been his father, who practiced law for 51 years before retiring seven years ago.
Wickliff was born in Washington, DC, and relocated to Houston when his father finished law school in 1952. He has been married for 32 years and has three children. In his free time, he likes to play tennis, jog, and golf.
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