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Siegel received his law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1991. Following law school, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Irving R. Kaufman on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.
From 1992 to 1994, Siegel was an associate in the Washington, DC office of the national law firm Jenner & Block. At Jenner, he worked on appellate and other matters and helped present a petition for post-conviction relief to the Maryland state trial court on behalf of death row inmate Kevin Wiggins. Although that court denied the petition, the U.S. Supreme Court eventually granted it in a decision vacating the death sentence and setting new standards for counsel in the sentencing phase of capital cases.
From 1995 to 2000, Siegel served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division in the Southern District of New York, where his practice focused on bringing civil rights actions, defending statutes from constitutional challenge, and defending federal agencies and officers from suits based on government action. Civil rights cases brought by Siegel include a complaint under the Voting Rights Act following fraud in a Bronx school board vote, an action based on discriminatory zoning, and an investigation of the Parks Department for employment discrimination. In a case of first impression, Siegel successfully defended the constitutionality of the 1996 immigration and welfare reform laws invalidating local rules against disclosing the immigration status of aliens to federal law enforcement. Siegel briefed and argued twelve appeals and received D.O.J.'s Award for Superior Performance as an A.U.S.A. in 1999 for the successful trial defense of the C.I.A. in a case involving the agency's experimentation with LSD in the early 1950s.
In 2000-01, Siegel was detailed to serve as Special Counsel on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where his responsibilities included drafting and analyzing legislation on election reform, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, criminal justice, immigration and other issues.
From 2001-06, Siegel was a partner at Watts Law Firm in Houston, where he worked on commercial, intellectual property and product liability litigation and appeals. In 2002, he successfully represented Texas beer distributors against Anheuser-Busch after it wrongfully prevented a $60 million sale of their distributorship, achieving a highly favorable confidential settlement. In 2003, he helped represent the founder of a securities trading firm forced out of the business he founded before its sale for $150 million, winning a $43 million arbitral award. In 2007, Siegel opened the Law Offices of Martin J. Siegel to focus on appellate advocacy.
In 2006, Siegel successfully represented the Texas Democratic Party in its suit to prevent the Republican Party of Texas from replacing Tom DeLay on the general election ballot for Congress following DeLay's withdrawal as a candidate. Siegel wrote the Democratic Party's briefs in the Fifth Circuit on an expedited schedule and co-argued the appeal, resulting in a complete victory for TDP's position under the Constitution's Qualifications Clause and state election law and an order barring the replacement.
In 2008, Texas Monthly named Siegel a "Texas Super Lawyer" for his appellate work. The award is given to approximately 5% of the attorneys in Texas chosen for the recognition by their peers. In 2004 and 2006, the magazine named him a "Texas Super Lawyer Rising Star," the parallel award given to lawyers under 40.
Siegel has written frequently on legal topics, including law review articles and Op-ed pieces. In 2007, he was named to the Board of Editors of Litigation, the magazine published by the ABA's Section on Litigation. Siegel also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center in 2002 and as a speaker at seminars and workshops in Houston and elsewhere.
Siegel's community involvement includes service on the board and executive committee of the Houston chapter of the American Jewish Committee, and as an AJC representative to the Houston Police Department's Advisory Committee, which provides community input to the HPD. Siegel also serves on the Scholarship Committee of the Houston chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, which awards over $200,000 in scholarships annually to Houston-area high school seniors for use during their first year of college. He is also on the board of the Houston chapter of the National Urban Debate League, which finances and organizes debate clubs and competitions at inner city high schools. He is married to Bettina Siegel and has two children in Houston public schools.
