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 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. Since January 1997 Mr. Martínez has practiced 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 3,000 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 Commission, Mr. Martínez was with the law firm of Pendleton & Sabian P.C., 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 17 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 also currently serving on the Committee on Conduct of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, having been appointed to that position by the court’s Article III judges. In 2006 he was elected to Board of Directors of the Faculty of Federal Advocates, and is currently the Treasurer of that organization. A member of the Legal Panel of the ACLU of Colorado, Mr. Martínez is also on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, where he serves as Chair of the CHBA’s Ethics Committee.
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 in 2008.
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: winning a $3.3 million verdict as lead trial counsel in Antoine v. Yellow Freight System, a single-plaintiff race harassment case; being lead private 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, as well as a $730,000 confidential settlement in 2008 on behalf of a single client in a race harassment case. In the course of his career, Mr. Martínez has also been lead or co-lead counsel in the following reported cases, most 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)