Judy Perry Martinez is a past president of the American Bar Association. She is Of Counsel at Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, and previously was with the firm from 1982 to 2003 as a partner, member of the governing committee, and commercial litigator.
Judy joined Northrop Grumman in 2003, where she would go on to serve as assistant general counsel for litigation, managing litigation for the western half of the country before becoming Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer in 2011. Judy also was named to the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council.
Judy retired from Northrop Grumman in 2015 to become a Fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard, where she spent a year in residence. Following her time at Harvard, she returned to New Orleans to pursue a career in public service and rejoined SPS&R, where she continues that work.
In 2011, Judy was appointed chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which evaluates all prospective nominees to the federal bench. Earlier, Judy served as the ABA lead representative to the United Nations, as a member of the ABA Board of Governors and its executive committee, and as a member of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession and the Task Force on Building Public Trust in the American Justice System. Most recently, she served as the chair of the ABA Presidential Commission on the Future of Legal Services and as a special advisor to the ABA Center for Innovation. She is a member of the American Law Institute and has previously served on the Board of Directors of the American Bar Foundation where she is a Fellow.
Judy’s commitment to public service began years ago when she and other members of the Louisiana Bar undertook an effort to establish the New Orleans Pro Bono Project. She also has served as a Distinguished Access to Justice Pro Bono Fellow for Southeast Louisiana Legal Services.
She has chaired the New Orleans Bar Association Young Lawyers Section, the Louisiana State Bar Association Committee on Minority Involvement in its inaugural year, 1989, the LSBA Professionalism and Quality of Life Committee, and the LSBA Post-Conviction Death Penalty Representation Committee.
She has been a member of the ABA House of Delegates since 1991 and has served as a member of the ABA Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege, and the Council of the ABA Center on Diversity. She currently serves as vice-president of the World Justice Project where she co-chairs its Leadership Council and is on the board of the Louisiana Supreme Court Historical Society.
She served as chair of the 170,000 member ABA Young Lawyers Division, a member of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession and the Council of the Section of Litigation, and chair of the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence.
Judy received the Sam Dalton Capital Defense Advocacy Award from the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Counsel in 1997, the Michaelle Pitard Wynne Professionalism Award from the Association of Women Attorneys in 1998, and the Alliance for Justice Award in 1999 from the National Gay and Lesbian Law Association.
She was named The Outstanding Young Lawyer in the State of Louisiana in 1990 and the Louisiana Bar Foundation’s 2001 Distinguished Attorney.
On two separate occasions, she has received the LSBA President’s Award and is the recipient of the 2012 Camille Gravel Public Service Award, a recognition by the Federal Bar Association’s New Orleans chapter to an attorney who has done substantial pro bono or public legal work. In 2017, Judy was honored with the David A. Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award by the Louisiana State Bar Association and the Presidents’ Award by the New Orleans Bar Association.
Judy earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Orleans and her Juris Doctor, with honors, from Tulane University Law School where she currently serves as an adjunct professor, teaching the Corporate and In-House Counsel Externship Seminar.
Practice Areas
Bar Admissions
- Louisiana
- U.S. Supreme Court
Education
- J.D., Tulane University, cum laude, 1982
- B.S., University of New Orleans, 1979
Professional Recognition
- Tulane Law School Hall of Fame, 2023
- Warren E. Burger Society, 2021
- David A. Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, Louisiana State Bar Association, 2017
- Presidents’ Award, New Orleans Bar Association, 2017
- Camille Gravel Public Service Award for substantial pro bono public legal work, Federal Bar Association’s New Orleans Chapter, 2012
- Distinguished Attorney, Louisiana Bar Foundation, 2001
- Alliance for Justice Award, National Gay and Lesbian Law Association, 1999
- Michaelle Pitard Wynne Professionalism Award, Association of Women Attorneys, 1998
- Sam Dalton Capital Defense Advocacy Award, Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Counsel, 1997
- Outstanding Young Lawyer in the State of Louisiana, 1990
- LSBA President’s Award
- AV Rated by Martindale Hubbell
- Louisiana Super Lawyers