Section 1983 Litigation - Employment Discrimination - Official Misconduct - Title VII - Title IX - ERISA - FLSA - ADEA
William J. Martínez
William J. Martínez was born in México and immigrated with his family to the U.S. as a young boy. The first member of his family to go to college, he received his B.S. degree in Environmental Engineering and his B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois, where he was an Illinois Scholar. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago. Mr. Martínez has been in private practice since January 1997, specializing in the areas of employment law and civil rights. As a partner in McNamara, Roseman, Martínez & Kazmierski LLP, he represents primarily plaintiffs in federal and state court, and before arbitrators and administrative agencies.
Prior to starting his firm, Mr. Martínez served as Regional Attorney of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in its Denver District Office. As Regional Attorney, Mr. Martínez had overall responsibility for the Commission’s legal operations and federal court enforcement litigation throughout a six-state jurisdiction. While at the EEOC, he was in charge of the Commission’s age discrimination class action against the Martin Marietta Corporation, which resulted in a successful settlement with an overall value to the class of over 3,200 laid off engineers of nearly $200 million. This is among the largest age discrimination class actions the federal government has ever litigated. Before going to the EEOC, Mr. Martínez was with the law firm now known as Pendleton, Freidberg, Wilson & Hennessey, where he litigated employment, securities and commercial law cases on behalf of corporate and individual clients. Mr. Martínez began his legal career in Illinois, where he practiced with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, where he litigated several law reform and class action cases on behalf of indigent and working class clients.
In the course of his career Mr. Martínez has been lead or co-lead counsel in litigation resulting in 18 published opinions from federal and state courts in Colorado and Illinois. He has also testified on employment law matters before the Colorado and Illinois legislatures, and in 1987 played a major role in drafting amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act. He has published articles on employment law in The Colorado Lawyer, The Employee Advocate, Journal of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, Trial and Trial Talk. During the 1990s, Mr. Martínez was an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Denver College of Law, and over the years has mentored several minority law students. He has also lectured to Bar and employer groups on employment law topics, and is an employment dispute arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.
Mr. Martínez has served on numerous Hearing Boards within the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge, having been appointed to that attorney regulation panel by the Colorado Supreme Court. He is currently Vice Chair of the Committee on Conduct of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, and he has been a Board member and Officer of the Faculty of Federal Advocates. He is also a member of the Legal Panel of the ACLU of Colorado, and on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, where he serves as Chair of the CHBA’s Ethics Committee. Most recently, he was appointed by the Colorado Bar Association to the Board of Directors of Colorado Legal Services, and by the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court to the Judicial Ethics Advisory Board.
Mr. Martínez has been honored by his induction as a Fellow in the College of Labor
and Employment Lawyers in Washington, D.C., making him one of only about 20 Fellows
in Colorado. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America in the field of employment law, and is also a Bar Fellow of the Colorado Bar Foundation. Mr. Martínez has also won recognition as a Colorado Super Lawyer in the field of Employment & Labor Law, including being named to “The Top 50” of all Colorado Super Lawyers for 2008 & 2009.
Finally, Mr. Martínez has been selected by U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall as one of six finalists to fill two vacancies currently on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The names of these six finalists were forwarded to President Barack Obama in July 2009. Under the U.S. Constitution, the President will select two persons from this finalist list and nominate them for these positions, subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate. This process is expected to take several months.
Representative Cases and Published Decisions:
In addition to the Martin Marietta class action, notable cases which Mr. Martínez has litigated in the last several years include: being lead intervenor counsel in EEOC et al. v. Albertson’s LLC, a class action which alleged a severely hostile work environment based on race and national origin, and which was settled in December 2009 for $8.9 million; winning a $3.3 million verdict as lead trial counsel in Antoine v. Yellow Freight System, a single-plaintiff race harassment case; being lead intervenor counsel in Arellano and EEOC v. Hamilton Sundstrand, in which a settlement of $1.25 million was achieved on behalf of several Hispanic employees; obtaining a nearly $1 million confidential settlement against a Fortune 500 corporation in 2006, a $730,000 confidential settlement in 2008 on behalf of a single client in a race harassment case, and a $460,000 confidential settlement in 2009 for a single client in a pregnancy discrimination case prior to filing suit in court.
In the course of his career, Mr. Martínez has also been lead or co lead counsel in the following reported cases, many of which involved complex litigation, including several class actions:
Ortiz v. General Motors, 583 F.Supp. 526 (N.D. Ill. 1984)
Cosby v. Ward, 625 F.Supp. 619 (N.D. Ill. 1985)
Jackson v. Illinois Department of Labor Board of Review, 475 N.E.2d 879 (Ill. 1985)
Dubinin v. Ward, 484 N.E.2d 870 (Ill. App. 1985)
Barnes v. Illinois Human Rights Commission, 494 N.E.2d 619 (Ill. App. 1986)
Cosby v. Ward, 843 F.2d 967 (7th Cir. 1988)
Bank of Denver v. Southeastern Capital Group, Inc., 763 F.Supp. 1552 (D. Colo. 1991)
Leeling v. Smith, 129 B.R. 637, 16 UCC Rep.Serv.2d 267 (Bankr. D. Colo. 1991)
Bank of Denver v. Southeastern Capital Group, Inc., 789 F.Supp. 1092 (D. Colo. 1992)
United Resources 1998 I Drilling and Completion Program LP v. Avalon Exploration, Inc., Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P. 97,359, 1993 WL 17464 (S.D.N.Y. 1993)
Wilkerson and EEOC v. Martin Marietta Corp., 875 F.Supp. 1456 (D. Colo. 1995)
Pérez v. Hospitality Ventures Denver, LLC, 245 F.Supp.2d 1172 (D. Colo. 2003)
Green v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 298 F.Supp.2d 1102 (D. Colo. 2003)
Pérez v. Hospitality Ventures Denver, LLC, 298 F.Supp.2d 1110 (D. Colo. 2004)
Martin v. AT&T Corp., 331 F.Supp.2d 1274 (D. Colo. 2004)
Leal v. Sonic Massey Pontiac Buick GMC, Inc., 444 F.Supp.2d 1163 (D. Colo. 2006)
EEOC et al. v. Albertson’s LLC, 247 F.R.D. 638 (D. Colo. 2007)
EEOC et al. v. Albertson’s LLC, 579 F.Supp.2d 1342 (D. Colo. 2008)