[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] 
[/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By General Motors General Counsel Craig Glidden
HOUSTON (Oct. 12) – When your Irish Catholic mother suggests that you would make a good lawyer, it’s either a comment about how much you like to argue, a genuine career suggestion or both. In either case, given the source, it’s not to be taken lightly.
Marty Beirne became a lawyer.
Marty is a Vietnam-era Army veteran. He was a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski. And he, along with Bill Maynard and Jeff Parsons, founded Beirne, Maynard & Parsons in 1987 on the premise that there was a better way to provide litigation services.
Marty does not like to talk about his personal history much. Although his accomplishments as a civil trial lawyer have been both numerous and impressive, he would prefer to talk about the accomplishments of his firm.
And if anything has been the hallmark of the firm’s success, it has been Marty’s refusal to accept the status quo. Marty refused to believe that a firm’s size determined its capability or the kind of clients it could attract and serve.
Even as a law student at St. Mary’s University School of Law, Marty was inclined to question the way things were, in particular why the school did not have a law review of its own.
“I’m not exactly sure what made me think that some kid could just arrive one day and start a law review,” he says. “The interesting thing was that nobody told me that I had no business thinking about law reviews that weren’t already in the library – that such things were for my elders and betters.”
Marty and his fellow students convinced the powers-that-be that they were capable of producing a world-class law review, and he was selected to serve as its founding editor-in-chief. Today, St. Mary’s Law Journal is one of the most often cited law reviews in the country.
Marty’s commitment to his law school, to the bar, and to the profession of law has never diminished, and one has only to read his resume to marvel at the energy that has allowed him to accomplish all that he has achieved for clients as their trial counsel as well as to raise three children of whom he is justifiably proud.
Marty’s first trial was a health insurance coverage/fraud case in Anderson, Texas. To win, he had to park his red sports car far from town and rely on a sympathetic rancher for a ride to the courthouse, having heard that “big city lawyers” were not very popular in Anderson. True to form, what he is quickest to acknowledge is that others helped make his wins possible.
Marty has always been about possibilities and has represented clients on many different stages.
In the 1980s, when he was hired to serve as lead counsel for General Motors in a three-year litigation campaign to stop the counterfeiting of motor vehicle parts, he found himself trying cases throughout the United States that resulted in seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in counterfeit materials, as well as an assortment of permanent injunctions and payments to GM.
At the same time, he helped draft and implement anti-counterfeiting statutes and enforcement procedures in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE.
Years later, no stranger to international legal matters, Marty was counsel for Conoco Phillips when its offshore oil and gas concession granted by the government of East Timor was challenged by another company. Marty successfully defended the international energy company against allegations of RICO and antitrust violations and theft of trade secret claims.
Law firms and lawyers are notorious for resistance to change, but that has never been part of Marty Beirne’s DNA. If you ask the firm’s clients, they will tell you that Marty can see around corners. When the economics of corporate law departments came under close scrutiny, with GCs under pressure to reduce costs, rather than resisting change, Marty was among the leaders in developing and implementing alternative fee arrangements to support clients’ efforts to become leaner.
At the same time, as clients began looking for greater efficiencies from outside counsel, Marty oversaw Beirne, Maynard & Parsons’ implementation of early case assessment procedures that would reduce litigation costs. Law firms and lawyers are notorious for resistance to change, but if Marty sees a train speeding his way, he will build a station before it arrives.
“As a trial lawyer,” Marty says, “you have to be able to understand, acknowledge, appreciate and communicate with your client. You have to make sure their interests are protected. You are not just carrying your own flag or the firm’s flag.”
Ultimately, Marty’s refusal to accept limitations allowed the firm to evolve into one of the finest litigation-only law firms in the country, with a reputation among Fortune 500 clients equal to that of an AmLaw 100 firm’s litigation practice. Yet the firm has the client service advantages of a boutique, including decades-long personal ties with clients and exceptional responsiveness. You might say that Marty and his partners created the niche the firm now occupies.
About molding the firm he founded in the shape of his vision, Marty observes, “You really don’t manage trial lawyers, you lead them. And if you’re lucky, they will follow.” Follow they did.
Craig Glidden is the executive vice president and general counsel at General Motors. He is also a long-time client and close friend of Martin Beirne.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]