McGuireWoods has selected Baltimore partner Melissa Martinez as its representative member for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 2021 Fellows Program. The career development initiative helps talented lawyers from diverse backgrounds build client relationships and excel in leadership roles. McGuireWoods has been an LCLD member and participant since the organization was founded in 2009.
Practicing with McGuireWoods’ Business & Securities Litigation Department, Martinez handles state and federal trial and appellate matters in the areas of commercial litigation, environmental torts, business torts, contractual disputes, and intellectual property litigation. She also co-chairs the firm’s consumer and retail financial product litigation subteam and the Baltimore office recruiting committee.
Martinez has served as president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Maryland and previously chaired its Community Service Committee. In 2019, the Baltimore Business Journal included her on its “Top 40 Under 40.”
“I am thrilled to represent McGuireWoods as an LCLD fellow and I look forward to working with LCLD leaders and peers in 2021 and beyond,” Martinez said.
Baltimore partner Ava Lias-Booker, chair of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee, said, “We are delighted to have such an exceptional lawyer as Melissa as the LCLD fellow this year. LCLD’s work is essential to continue developing a diverse pipeline of future leaders.”
LCLD is a national organization of more than 320 corporate counsel and law firm managing partners dedicated to creating a diverse legal profession. Its Fellows Program launched in 2011 to increase diversity at the leadership levels of U.S. law firms and corporate legal departments