N ico Martinez is no stranger to winning high-stakes litigation for his clients. An example? Last August, Martinez earned an historic trial victory as co-lead counsel for a group of African American voters challenging Georgia’s method of electing members of its Public Service Commission. Following a bench trial, held in the Northern District of Georgia, a federal judge found that the state’s electoral method violated the Voting Rights Act because it unlawfully dilutes the power of African American voters to choose their representatives. The court issued a permanent injunction forbidding the practice in future commission elections. “This trial victory represents a landmark decision in protecting mi- nority voting rights,” said one nominator. The case marked the first time that a federal court has invalidated a method of electing statewide officials under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Martinez then led the effort in the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve the trial victory for the following election cycle. Martinez and his team persuaded all nine justices to vacate an appellate stay of the district court’s injunction. And this is far from the only impressive result that Martinez has earned during his career. Martinez has tried more than a half dozen cases since joining Bartlit Beck. He has contributed to the firm’s major trial successes for PricewaterhouseCoopers and UnitedHealthcare and helped secure a complete defense verdict in an $800 million breach-of-contract case against shareholders of a privately held oil and gas company. “It’s hard to quite capture in words Nico’s diligence, brilliance and unflappability,” said one of his peers. “He is an expert in explaining highly complex matters in a simple, straightforward manner to a jury, to his peers and to law students. His track record speaks to his ability to gain the trust of judges and juries, for the benefit of his clients. Yet all of his intellectual horsepower and legal acumen comes second, in my mind, to Nico’s extraordinary kindness and generosity.” Martinez has also shone as an adjunct instructor at Northwestern Law’s Federal Appellate Clinic, where teams of law students litigate cases in circuit courts across the country. One student at the end of a recent semester wrote that it was a privilege to work with Martinez at such an early point in that student’s career. Why? “Doing so helped me learn to better craft and understand” legal advocacy, the student wrote. In addition to his many trial victories, Martinez has dedicated his time to help create a more diverse legal community and to serving as a men- tor to the next generation of lawyers. In 2019, he was selected as a Pathfinder for the Legal Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), and spent this past year as a fellow at the Council. The goal of LCLD is to nurture the talent within law firms and help build a new, more diverse generation of attorneys among law firm leadership. Martinez is also a sponsor of Bartlit Beck’s Diversity Fellowship pro- gram, which seeks to foster diversity in the legal profession.
NICO MARTINEZ
AGE 39
FIRM Bartlit Beck LLP
LAW SCHOOL Stanford Law School
AREA OF PRACTICE Trial lawyer
2023 ILLINOIS ATTORNEYS TO WATCH
It’s hard to quite capture in words Nico’s diligence, brilliance and unflappability.”
40 Under Forty 2023 CHICAGO LAWYER & CHICAGO DAILY LAW BULLETIN 40 Under Forty 2023 CHICAGO LAWYER & CHICAGO DAILY LAW BULLETIN
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