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Holt Major Lackey, PLLC: The Firm That Sued a Texas Law Firm on Behalf of Its Own Partners

There’s a particular kind of credibility in an employment lawyer taking on a case against the legal industry itself. Holt Major Lackey, PLLC represented women law partners who say they experienced decades of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination at one of Texas’s largest law firms, reaching a confidential settlement — a matter the firm discloses without naming the defendant, consistent with the confidentiality terms such settlements typically require.

At a Glance: Austin Employment Lawyer Firm Overview

I. From Congressional Counsel to Employee-Side Litigation

Holt Lackey graduated from Northwestern University and returned to Austin for law school at the University of Texas. Before founding the firm in 2022, he worked at one of Texas’s largest law firms and served as counsel to committees of the U.S. Congress and to a Texas senator’s Washington, D.C. office. The firm’s own materials describe that experience as formative in an unusual way: seeing how “money can too often skew the legal process and favor the powerful” from inside the system reportedly pushed Lackey toward representing individual employees instead. His family has multiple generations in Texas law; his grandfather is described on the firm’s site as having represented President Lyndon B. Johnson at the signing of landmark civil rights legislation.

Amaris Isabel Diaz, from San Antonio, joined after graduating from the University of Texas School of Law in May 2024, where she worked in the school’s Civil Rights Clinic and served as a staff editor for the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights. Before law school she clerked at Disability Rights Texas and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

II. No Board Certification Identified; Peer Recognition Instead

Awesome Attorneys did not find a current Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification for either attorney, and does not use “specialist” language for this firm as a result. Super Lawyers’ peer-review process lists Lackey under Employment Litigation: Plaintiff, Employment & Labor: Employee, and Personal Injury – General: Plaintiff, with a peer comment describing him as “a fierce advocate for his clients” and “diligent, hard-working.”

III. Practice Concentration: What This Austin Employment Attorney Firm Handles

The firm’s employment practice covers discrimination, retaliation and whistleblower protection, sexual harassment, severance agreement negotiation, and unpaid wages and overtime claims. It also handles personal injury matters and offers general counsel services to nonprofits, small businesses, and individuals — a broader scope than the pure employment boutiques elsewhere in this category, reflecting Lackey’s varied litigation background in patent, copyright, construction, antitrust, and complex commercial disputes before he specialized.

IV. Track Record

Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. The matter below is disclosed by the firm without a named defendant or settlement figure, consistent with typical confidentiality terms in sexual harassment and discrimination settlements.

Awesome Attorneys was not able to independently verify the settlement figure or the identity of the defendant firm, both withheld under confidentiality terms typical of this type of matter; the case is included because the firm itself discloses it as a notable result rather than presenting only anonymous claims.

V. Client Voice

Awesome Attorneys did not identify any client reviews for this firm on Avvo, Yelp, or FindLaw at the time of writing — FindLaw’s listing explicitly states “there are currently no reviews for Holt Major Lackey, PLLC.” This is consistent with a firm founded in 2022 that is still building its public track record, and is disclosed directly rather than substituted with firm marketing language.

VI. Beyond the Courtroom

Holt Lackey sits on the board of the Anti-Defamation League of Austin and serves as secretary of the board of Equality Texas, and is a member of the Economic Prosperity Commission and the Joint Cultural Committee of Texas. This civic footprint is locally concentrated and reasonably substantial for a two-attorney firm still in its early years.

VII. Recognition

Peer-reviewed and independently conferred credentials: Holt Lackey’s Super Lawyers recognition (Thomson Reuters’ peer-review process) across employment litigation, employment and labor, and personal injury plaintiff practice areas.

No board certification or marketing-program awards were identified for either attorney at the time of writing.

VIII. The Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas is an at-will employment state, with discrimination and retaliation claims running through Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA federally and the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (Texas Labor Code Chapter 21) at the state level, requiring a Texas Workforce Commission charge within 180 days. Texas Labor Code § 21.055 specifically prohibits retaliation against employees who complain about discrimination or participate in related investigations — a provision the firm cites directly in its own civil rights materials. Wage claims run through the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (two-year limitations period, three years for willful violations) and the Texas Payday Act, Texas Labor Code Chapter 61.

IX. Awesome Attorneys Assessment: Weighing This Austin Employment Lawyer

This firm’s clearest strength is Lackey’s willingness to take on matters against powerful, well-resourced institutions — including, in the firm’s own disclosed example, another major Texas law firm — combined with genuine Super Lawyers peer recognition across multiple plaintiff-side practice areas. Diaz’s civil rights clinic background and nonprofit legal-aid experience add depth to a small team.

The fair caveat: this is a young firm (founded 2022) with no independently posted client reviews at the time of writing, and its one disclosed headline case comes without a verifiable settlement figure or named defendant. Readers should weigh Lackey’s individual litigation pedigree and peer recognition more heavily than an as-yet-thin public track record for the firm itself.

X. Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (holtmajorlackey.com), including its About, attorney biography, and practice-area pages; Super Lawyers’ peer-review attorney profile for Holt Lackey; and a search for client reviews on Avvo, Yelp, and FindLaw, which did not surface a public review record. Case narratives are the firm’s own published claims, disclosed here as such. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Labor Code. No case results, credentials, or quotes were invented.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Holt Major Lackey, PLLC prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placements clearly labeled as such, but no payment of any kind determines inclusion in, or the content of, this editorial profile. This article is for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader and Holt Major Lackey, PLLC or Awesome Attorneys.