Judy Perry Martinez

Judy Perry Martinez served as president of the American Bar Association in 2019-20. After graduating from the University of New Orleans and Tulane Law School, Judy started her legal career as a commercial litigator at Simon, Peragine,], Smith & Redfearn in New Orleans and went on to practice there for 21 years, as a partner and served as a member of the governing committee.

Judy joined Northrop Grumman in 2003, where she served as assistant general counsel for litigation, before being named Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer. Judy also was appointed 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 and rejoined her former firm as Of Counsel, to continue a career in pro bono and public service.

Among other leadership roles in the American Bar Association, Judy served as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which evaluates all prospective Article III nominees to the federal bench, as the ABA lead representative to the United Nations, and as a member of the ABA Task Force on Building Public Trust in the American Justice System and the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.  She served as the chair of the ABA Presidential Commission on the Future of Legal Services and is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American and Louisiana Bar Foundations. She currently serves as vice-president of the World Justice Project which through its annual Rule of Law Index, assesses the state of the Rule of Law in over 140 countries across the globe. Among other recognitions, in 2021, Judy was inducted into the Warren E. Burger Society of the National Center for State Courts.