Attorney Johnny Houston, Jr., thinks certain things are cool, like paintings by Mr. Hooper, the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and political memorabilia. But as much as he enjoys those things, and has made them a part of his life, none of them exceed the coolness of his Yamaha FZ6. Or his FJR1300 by the same manufacturer.
Or any motorcycle, for that matter. All two-wheeled wonders are, in his words, “inherently cool.”
When Houston was a teenager, his mother felt differently. “My mother wouldn’t let me have one. She thought I’d get killed, which is a valid concern, because a lot of people do get killed on motorcycles. My dad let me have one, but it didn’t run,” he says.
Houston made up for lost time when he turned 18 and put his father’s 1973 Kawasaki 900 to good use. “At one time, that was the fastest motorcycle made, even though both of the bikes I own today would totally smoke it. I loved riding it,” Houston says.
When Houston moved to Knoxville to go to school, he bought a Kawasaki KZ400, but he sold it several years later because he needed the money. Houston went “a pretty good while” without riding a bike, and then about 10 years ago, he bought a Honda Shadow 1100. Houston put a lot of miles on the Shadow, and then decided the kind of riding he wanted to do involved longer stretches of road. That’s when he bought his FJR1300.
“It’s a sport touring bike. It’s comfortable, yet fast and reliable. I’ve ridden it to Nova Scotia, Key West, and Colorado. You could cruise on that thing at 110 mph, and it would be nothing. I’m not saying I do that; I’m saying you could do it if you wanted to,” Houston says, laughing.
While most white collar professionals have to check their personal interests at the office door, Houston found a way to combine his hobby with his work: represent motorcycle riders in personal injury and criminal cases. To attract clients, he advertises his practice in phone books and magazines. The ads are to the point: instead of a stock photo of Houston in a suit and tie, they feature a picture of him standing next to a motorcycle dressed in jeans, a leather jacket, and chains.
“Need an attorney? Hire one that rides,” one ad proposes. Although his hair currently has more gray than when the picture was taken, and he wears a suit to work, Houston’s clients still connect with him in a way that’s uncommon for an attorney.
“When you need a service from someone, you want someone with whom you can identify. So, when someone who rides sees me in the ad, he says, ‘Hey, this guy rides, too. I’ll give him a call,’” Houston says. While the ad speaks directly to people who ride motorcycles, it also goes against the perception that lawyers are unapproachable professionals who have little in common with regular folks. The picture is who Houston is - in or out of a suit.
“I come from a blue collar background, and whatever I’ve gotten in life, I’ve had to earn. But more than that, I’m just a regular guy. And I think that’s why people like me. I believe the people who come to see me think, ‘Hey, Houston’s a good guy. I’d go drink a beer with him.’ And that’s true. If I was out somewhere, I’d drink a beer with them,” he says. Houston doesn’t rely on a clever photograph to build credibility with his clients, though; he also mounts a good defense. In his best known case, he successfully defended a Chattanooga fireman who was accused of kidnapping and killing a 15-year-old boy.
“The first time we tried the case, the jury couldn’t reach a verdict. Nine or 10 jurors voted ‘guilty’ and two or three voted ‘not guilty.’ When we tried the case again nine or 10 months later, the jury came back ‘not guilty’ on all charges. It was one of the rare absolute acquittals in a first degree murder case,” Houston says.
Houston grew up in Memphis, earned an undergraduate
degree in philosophy at the University of Tennessee at Knox-ville, and then returned to his hometown to attend law school. Following graduation, he tried to return to Knoxville, but jobs were hard to come by. During a job fair in Nashville in 1989, he interviewed with Stophel & Stophel, a large firm in Chattanooga.
Houston originally wanted to do criminal work, as he hated the idea of being tied to a desk. But with a wife and baby to support, he decided a good paying job was more imperative. So, when Stophel & Stophel offered him a position, he took it.
But as Houston’s career got underway, something a lawyer had once said back to him.
“When I was in law school, I clerked for a lawyer who told me I’d better find something I like and get to know it, because if I just became a worker bee for a big firm, I’d be expendable. And once I started working for a big firm, I could see he was right. So I started to focus on criminal defense, and eventually struck out on my own,” he says.
In addition to his law practice, Houston is a judge in Red Bank. In the role, he can hear any non-civil case, including criminal cases. Felonies don’t end in his court, but misdemeanors can, giving him the authority to put people in jail for up to one year.
Beyond work, Houston lives a straightforward life. He and his wife, a teacher, have three children, including two sons in their early twenties and an 18-year-old daughter. He and his wife like doing things outdoors, and Houston competes in racketball tournaments when his schedule allows it. He recently won a tournament in Cookeville, Tenn., but is currently taking a break from the sport to mend from a 30-foot toss from a four-wheeler.
Houston also takes long rides on his FZ6 whenever he can. He’d like to travel to Seattle, but says setting aside the time would be a challenge. In between practicing law and enjoying life, Houston doles out advice about owning and riding motorcycle. He urges everyone who rides to take a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Course, and recommends people who own a motorcycle carry enough insurance to cover serious injuries.
“There’s a misconception among motorcycle riders that if they get in a wreck, they’re going to be killed, so the majority of them don’t carry enough insurance. And what happens is they survive and get stuck with massive medical bills,” he says. Being in an accident is not on Houston’s roadmap. Rather, his retirement plan consists of being healthy enough to continue working when he’s 70, which he says is approaching faster than he’d like. “Life goes so fast, it’s scary. I’ll be 48 this year, which means I’ve been doing this for 22 years. And those years passed quickly. I’ll think about how the lawyers who were my age when I started out are almost 70 now, and I’ll wonder if I’m going to turn around and be that old tomorrow.”
While Houston openly discusses serious topics, he’s more prone to demonstrate his knack for one-liners. He jokes about how he had to leave Memphis when he became a lawyer because a number of people in his family were criminals, and he “didn’t want to do all of that free work.” And he says he doesn’t like working domestic cases because “there are more hard feelings in a divorce than a murder.” Houston is also surprisingly candid. He complains about the high overhead involved in running his own practice, and says he can count on one hand the number lawyers who are his friends.
“Lawyers are a bit know-it-all’ish, and they tend to cluster among themselves. I’ve never done that. Most of my friends do other things.” While Houston might go against the grain of his profession, he’s a proven attorney with a heart for his clients.
“I represent good people,” he says. “They get in wrecks, and they have the same legal problems as everyone else. They just happen to ride a motorcycle.”