Martin Thomas
Martin Thomas has been practicing law since 1979 and has run Decker Law, as president and managing attorney, for years of that. He is a Norfolk native who went to the University of Virginia for his undergraduate degree, spent a year on law review at the University of Georgia, and came back to Charlottesville for his J.D. — six years at UVA all told, over which, he notes with some feeling, he never once saw them win a football game.
His practice is serious personal injury: motor vehicle collisions, products liability, medical malpractice, premises liability. He handles multimillion-dollar claims involving catastrophic injury throughout Virginia, and Super Lawyers has named him among the state’s top personal injury attorneys. He also keeps an administrative practice most trial lawyers don’t — alcoholic beverage control matters, and the defense of doctors and nurses before the Department of Health Professions — and represents a long roster of Hampton Roads businesses.
The credential that says the most about how he is regarded is one he rarely leads with. For nearly a decade he sat on the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission of Virginia, the body that investigates complaints against the Commonwealth’s judges. He chaired it twice. Being asked to judge the judges is not a distinction a lawyer campaigns for; it is one the profession hands you.
He is also, since 2007, one of two Martin Thomases at this firm. His son practices down the hall.
“No matter how big or small the client, no matter how big or small the problem, these are people that we’re dealing with. They deserve respect. And they need compassion.”
MARTIN’S HIGHLIGHTS
President and managing attorney of Decker Law, handling serious personal injury cases throughout Virginia. Martin has practiced since 1979 and twice chaired Virginia’s Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission.
AREAS OF PRACTICE
- Personal Injury
- Criminal Defense
- Traffic Law
- Administrative Law
BAR ADMISSIONS
- Commonwealth of Virginia, 1979
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
EDUCATION
- University of Virginia (B.A., 1975)
- University of Georgia Law School (Law Review)
- University of Virginia School of Law (J.D., 1979)
Read Martin’s civic record and one word keeps recurring: schools. He chaired the board of Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School for seven years, sat on Catholic High’s building committee, and chaired its development committee. He is on the board of St. Gregory the Great Catholic School and the Catholic Charities of Hampton Roads Foundation. Add the Dozoretz Hospice House of Hampton Roads, where he is vice chairman, and a picture forms of someone who gives his time to the two ends of a life — the institutions that raise children and the ones that care for people at the end.
The rest is neighborhood. Past president of the Ocean Park Civic League, the Columbian Club of Ocean View, the Knights of Columbus at Ocean View, and past president of the Sons and Daughters of Lebanon. He has served on Virginia Beach’s Bayfront Advisory Commission. These are not résumé boards. They are the organizations of the specific stretch of coastline he lives on.
Which is where you will find him when he is not working. Martin’s favorite place in Hampton Roads is his own backyard on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach — “because I’m sitting on the beach” — most likely with an old fashioned.
PROFESSIONAL AND CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS
- Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission of Virginia, 2002–2011 (Vice Chair 2004–05, 2008–09; Chairman 2005–07, 2009–10)
- Vice Chairman, Dozoretz Hospice House of Hampton Roads
- Board of Directors, St. Gregory the Great Catholic School
- Catholic Charities of Hampton Roads Foundation
- Board of Directors (Chairman 1991–98), Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School
- Board Member, Catholic High School Building Committee
- Chairman, Catholic High School Development Committee, 1998–2000
- Sons and Daughters of Lebanon (Past President)
- Columbian Club of Ocean View
- Knights of Columbus, Ocean View
- Past President, Ocean Park Civic League
- Bayfront Advisory Commission, Virginia Beach
IF YOU NEED HELP, TALK TO MARTIN TODAY
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