Continuously licensed since 1990. NBTA Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney. Martindale-Hubbell AV Rated. Federal and state courts in Alabama and Mississippi.
Max Cassady graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1990, where he served as a member of the Alabama Law Review and earned the school's Best Paper Book Awards in both Property I and Property II — receiving the highest grade in each course.
Following law school, he served two years as a federal law clerk in the chambers of Chief United States District Judge Alex T. Howard, Jr. in the Southern District of Alabama (1990–1992). Judge Howard is best known for presiding over Donald v. United Klans of America — the landmark civil-rights case in which the Southern Poverty Law Center bankrupted the KKK after the lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, by extending the principle of "agency" to hold the organization legally accountable for the acts of its members.
That clerkship — and the example of a federal judge willing to extend old principles to confront new injustices — is the foundation of how this firm approaches every case: read the law carefully, prepare thoroughly, and never assume an outcome is foreclosed because no one has tried it before.
A Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney, Max practices in federal and state courts across Alabama and Mississippi. In the 1990s, he and other former federal law clerks achieved a National Record Fair Housing Settlement in Mobile, arising out of discrimination by West Mobile apartment complexes against African-Americans (DOJ press release). In his first murder appeal to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, he established a battered woman's right to a self-defense expert (Bonner v. State). The firm has also litigated for students subjected to incarceration-style conditions within Alabama public schools.
After completing the federal clerkship, Max joined the Mobile defense firm Johnstone Adams, where he learned how insurance carriers and large employers build a case from the inside. He subsequently associated with the Mobile claimant's firm Burns, Cunningham & Mackey, P.C., representing injured workers, accident victims, and families against those same kinds of opponents — the perspective that ultimately shaped his solo practice.
He has practiced from Evergreen, Alabama for over three decades, representing automobile-injury and job-injury clients in Conecuh County and across South Alabama since 1995. The firm embraces technology as a competitive edge — keeping a small-town practice nimble against opposing counsel many times its size — and the case results reflect it.
Peer-reviewed credentials earned through years of trial work and contested appeals.
Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA), the ABA-accredited certification reserved for trial lawyers with proven civil-trial experience and demonstrated specialization.
Martindale-Hubbell's highest peer-review rating for legal ability and ethical standards — based on confidential reviews from members of the bar and bench.
Selected to the Alabama Super Lawyers list — Personal Injury Plaintiff and Workers' Compensation Claimant — every year from 2014 through 2025. Previously selected in employment law (2009).
Selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in the field of personal injury (2011), as chosen by peer attorneys.
Special Education Law Certification from the William & Mary School of Law — supporting the firm's work for students with disabilities and the educators who advocate for them.
Former member of the Editorial Board of The Alabama Lawyer, the monthly publication of the Alabama State Bar distributed to every licensed Alabama attorney.
Alongside the firm's current focus on workers' compensation, personal injury, and Social Security disability, the breadth of trial and appellate experience over more than three decades includes:
The firm has recovered in excess of $1,000,000 in multiple legal-malpractice cases and in excess of $3,000,000 in a personal-injury / products-liability mass-tort matter. Cases often come to the firm through referring attorneys.
Writings on Alabama law, attorney ethics, and the cultural and legal history of the South.
77 Alabama Lawyer 412 (November 2016). An exploration of the historical client of A.C. Lee — Harper Lee's father — believed to have inspired the character of Dolphus Raymond in To Kill a Mockingbird. Read the article (PDF) →
73 Alabama Lawyer 50 (January 2012). Addresses alleged involuntary attorney-client relationships and the attendant statute-of-limitations issues that have shaped Alabama legal-malpractice litigation. Read the article (PDF) →
An analysis of tort claims arising out of the post-judgment denial of workers' compensation medical benefits — a recurring problem for injured Alabama workers, and a doctrine the firm has helped develop in the trial courts.
An essay on advocacy, professional responsibility, and the realities of small-town and rural practice. Read the essay (PDF) →
Outside the office, Max has run 26.2-mile marathons in several states and has completed a 50K ultramarathon — the same kind of long-haul preparation he brings to a contested trial. He is active in his community in Evergreen, where the firm has been part of the Conecuh County legal landscape for more than three decades.
The practice today is intentionally focused on three pillars where preparation and trial readiness most reliably move outcomes for working Alabamians:
Job injuries, denied claims, permanent impairment, and settlement.
Learn more →Car wrecks, trucking collisions, wrongful death, and serious accidents.
Learn more →SSDI and SSI claims, denials, ALJ hearings, and federal-court review.
Learn more →For a sampling of representative case results, see Cases & Notable Results.
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