Doug Martinson II:         

You know, my grandfather graduated from Huntsville High in 1932. He was president of the class 1932 and he was captain of the football team. And he also decided that year that they needed a homecoming queen and they named my grandmother as the homecoming queen because they were dating. So they ended up getting married. And then he read for the bar. He read the law so he can be eligible to take the bar and he took extension courses out of Chicago, Lasalle extension courses.

Doug Martinson, Sr:

And then in 1937, he received his law license and he told me that he made the highest score there that had been made on the bar exam at that time. That’s what they told him. Then his law practice started out in the back of his father-in-law’s store, who’s my grandfather, and he prepared documents for people in Dallas in the old village and wills and deeds and bills of sale and gave them legal advice.

Doug Martinson II:

And then he went to World War 2 and was stationed up in Wisconsin and then in Michigan. And then when he came back, he started practicing law full-time. And then he served an inferior court judge, which is a district court judge today, and then he ran for probate judge and then he was also very active in the Lion’s club, the Lion’s International, and they were big into rural electrification and then they get to a rural telephone, so he helped found the New Hope Telephone Co-op.

Doug Martinson, Sr:

I was just a little kid, 10-12 years old at the time, and I went on a lot of trips with him and explaining the need for a telephone in the areas of New Hope, Grant, and Owens crossroads. So we still represent the New Hope Telephone Cooperative. And at one time they had party lines and they had crank telephones and now they’re doing a $26 million expansion in fiber optics, which will have a bundle of telephone and cable TV and internet, so we’ve seen that company come a long, long way.

Mac Martinson:      

My grandfather and my father worked together for a number of years until his death in 1971. And then my father and Mr. Beason were lifelong friends George came back to Huntsville to work with him.

George Beason:

Yeah I came in, in 1972 from the FBI, lived in Cleveland, Ohio. Doug called me and wanted me to come back and practice law and I wanted to come back and practice law. But I remember standing outside the front door waiting on the office to open with Glen Manning. I worked for Glen Manning and Doug. And then after a year or so, Glen went with another law firm and Doug and I set up our partnership. So we’ve been together ever since.

Doug Martinson II:

And then I graduated from law school in ’89 and I did a year of tax law school and I came back in 1990 and had been practicing ever since. And then my brother came here about 1992 and then George Beason’s daughter came here in 1995. And since we’ve all grown up together, it was kind of a natural fit to come in and get different specialties and to grow the practice.

Doug Martinson II:

Since that time, with all of us back, we’ve hired some new attorneys, we’ve expanded our areas of practice, and we’ve had our practice grow with the city of Huntsville.

Morris Lilienthal:     

The firm grew up with the town. And since George and Doug have both been practicing 40-plus years, Huntsville’s changed a lot, and so has our firm. And we’ve grown but we’ve grown in the right size and the right manner to give the same level of service we give now with the 8 lawyers is the same service that I believe, from listening to Doug Sr. talk, that his dad gave when the firm started in 1937, which is what we’re committed to is, well, we may be growing, the level of care and quality service we give doesn’t change.

Andrew Sieja:

It’s an amazing amount of time when you consider how long 75 years is. And since I’ve been working here, a lot of that knowledge has been passed down to me, a lot of that understanding. And it’s been invaluable for me to not only learn from that, but to also be a part of that and to be able to hopefully contribute to the impeccable reputation which this firm has.

Caleb Ballew:

75 years being in business kind of speaks for itself and something that’s invaluable for a young attorney is credibility and reputation. In this profession, it’s everything. And to come to a place where you’ve got George Beason and Doug Martinson, Morris Lilienthal, people like that who are visible in the community that have done things the right way. And when you speak to opposing counsel, they have nothing but nice things to say about them, even though those opposing counsels have lost.

Morris Lilienthal:     

We’re a full-service law firm here and that’s kind of a lost art today and I think people take a lot of solace in knowing if they have an issue, that they can call us and we can handle it. And if we can’t handle it—for example, we don’t handle bankruptcy—if something we don’t handle, we’ll find you somebody that’s very capable of handling that, somebody that I’d send my own mom to or a relative of mine too. So I think where I see the firm going is it’s staying more involved in the community, helping others, as we’ve done in the past can continue to grow the firm and manage it so we can continue with client commitment.

Donnie Newman:

With so many ways we’ve been involved with them, you know, I know they call it full-service family business, and that’s what they have provided to our family in many different ways. We’ve taken advantage of that. In buying businesses, like the Pepsi Cola businesses, they have provided assistance in dealing with shareholder issues, with major customer issues. They’ve dealt with us in real estate business and buying and selling residential, commercial. We’ve dealt with them in full closures, zoning issues, I mean, this is a whole array of things. If you are in business, you’re going to have to find a good competent law firm like Martinson & Beason who can provide those services to you. You just won’t get assistance from big firms like that.

Doug Martinson II:

What I do like working here is we’ve represented so many people for so many years, so when people come in and say, “Oh, well your grandfather did this deed for me,” and then we’re actually doing the continuation of that deed.

Doug Martinson, Sr:

My father met a lot of people and of course at that time, the county was agricultural. He had a lot of farmers that he represented. Now most of their farmland is subdivisions, but the law practice evolves. Instead of representing farmers in the agricultural business, we’re representing farmers’ grandchildren who are now developers. So I think the legacy is that there’s sort have been a continuity of what has happened here.

Morris Lilienthal:     

We’ve learned what it takes and gotten us to make 75 years of success is our clients. And how do we benefit from that, what do we do? We put our clients first. Client commitment comes first. And when they come first, everything else falls in line.