Martin Wickel studied law first in Bremen and later on in Frankfurt a.M. and passed the first state legal examination in 1992. In 1995 he completed his doctoral thesis on the subject “grandfathering in environmental law”. In the same year he acceded his legal internship in Frankfurt, Darmstadt and Berlin, which he completed successfully with his state examination. In 1996 he participated in the European Young Lawyers Scheme of the British Council and studied at the College of Law in London.

1998 he received his admission as a lawyer and began studying again at the University of Michigan where he achieved the Master of Laws in 1999.

After an occupation as a scientific assistant at the Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M. between 1999 and 2001, Martin Wickel acceded his professorship for Law and Administration in the department of urban planning at the TU Hamburg-Harburg in 2001 and is thereby professor at the HCU since 2006.  Since 2009 he is member of the nature conservation council of the Sovereign Hanseatic City of Hamburg.