William J. Martinez, a Denver lawyer who immigrated from Mexico as a child with his parents, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as a trial judge in the U.S. District Court of Colorado.
Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet originally recommended Martinez as one of six lawyers to fill two positions on the federal bench. Obama chose Martinez Thursday morning. His nomination now goes to the full U.S. Senate for confirmation, which can take several months.
Constrained by the White House about public statements prior to his confirmation hearing, Martinez said Thursday, “I am deeply honored that the President has decided to nominate me for this position.”
Martinez is considered an expert in employment law and civil rights. He is the former regional attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he oversaw the commission’s age-discrimination, class-action lawsuit against Martin Marietta Corporation. That resulted in a settlement of nearly $200 million for 3,200 engineers who had been laid off.
He currently is in private practice at the firm McNamara, Roseman, Martinez & Kazmierski. In December, he won an $8.9 million settlement against Albertson’s Grocers for 189 black and Hispanic workers, who had sued over racial harrasment at the company’s distribution center in Aurora.
Martinez received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and his law degree from the University of Chicago. He played a major role in drafting the Illinois Human Rights Act. In Colorado, he has lectured and written extensively and serves as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Denver College of Law. He is a board member of the Faculty of Federal Advocates, on the legal panel of the ACLU of Colorado and a board member of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association.
Martinez, the first member of his family to go to college, is married with two daughters, one in college and one at East High School. His wife is a physician at Denver Health Medical Center.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
