Leo P. Martinez: 2011 Voices of Conscience Awardee & Public Advocates Board Chair

Leo P. Martinez, a legal education, public interest & public broadcasting leader and Public Advocates Board Chair, will receive our a Voices of Conscience Award. This award is our highest honor and a signal of our gratitude for his exceptional leadership in the legal and public interest sector and as successful defendent in Christian Law Students v. Martinez (2010).

Professor Martinez was Acting Chancellor and Dean of UC Hastings College of the Law in 2009-2010 and has resumed his position as Professor. He attributes his equanimical outlook to the fortunate circumstance of his birth and childhood in the pristine mountain air of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dean Martinez met his military commitment as a member of the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, he has had experience as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and his private practice focused on tax issues with the San Francisco law firm of Howard Rice, et al. His practice experience has ranged from criminal prosecution and defense to venture capital investment.

Professor Martinez joined the Hastings faculty in 1985 and succeeded Chancellor Mary Kay Kane as the Academic Dean. Following 12 years in the Academic Dean's Office, Dean Martinez returned to the classroom in 2006. His teaching has included some combination of contracts, federal tax, tax policy, tax procedure, and insurance law. He is a co-author of the West text on insurance law. He is a member of the American Law Institute.

Professor Martinez received his undergraduate degree in math and physics from the University of Kansas and an M.S. in systems analysis from the University of Southern California. He is a graduate of Hastings, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and Thurston Society and where he served as the Managing Editor of the Hastings Law Journal.