JudyPerry Martinez

Judy Perry Martinez is past president of the American Bar Association. She is Of Counsel at Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn where previously she served from 1982 to 2003 as a member of the governing committee. Judy joined Northrop Grumman in 2003, where she was assistant general counsel for litigation before becoming Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer. 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. 

Judy served as ABA lead representative to the United Nations, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary, Young Lawyers Division, Presidential Commission on the Future of Legal Services, and Commission on Domestic Violence. She served as a member of the executive committee of the ABA Board of Governors, special advisor to the Center for Innovation and as a member of the Task Force on Building Public Trust in the American Justice System, Commission on Women in the Profession, Task Force on Attorney Client Privilege and Center for Diversity. 

She chaired the New Orleans Bar Association Young Lawyers Section, Louisiana State Bar Association Committee on Minority Involvement in its inaugural year, 1989, LSBA Professionalism and Quality of Life Committee, and LSBA Post-Conviction Death Penalty Representation Committee. 

Judy received the Sam Dalton Capital Defense Advocacy Award from the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Counsel, the Michaelle Pitard Wynne Professionalism Award from the Association of Women Attorneys, and the Alliance for Justice Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Law Association. She was named The Outstanding Young Lawyer in the State of Louisiana 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 Camille Gravel Public Service Award from the Federal Bar Association New Orleans Chapter, the LSBA David A. Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award and the New Orleans Bar Association President’s Award. 

She is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and Louisiana Bar Foundation. 

Judy earned her BS from the University of New Orleans and her Juris Doctor with honors from Tulane University Law School where she sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board and previously served as an instructor in trial advocacy.