Michael N. Martinez

Michael Martinez was born in New Mexico to parents Nelson and Leonila. His parents moved to Utah when he was a young boy for the job opportunities; his father was a miner at the Bingham copper mine. He spent his childhood in Lark, Utah, a mining town later purchased by Kennecott Copper Mine.[2] He is the oldest of five children. During high school, he worked at Welch's Lumber Mill as part of the school's on the job training program.[3]

He served in the 1st Cavalry during the Vietnam War from 1969-1971.

He graduated from Bingham High School in May 1967. After serving in the Vietnam War, he used his G.I. Bill benefits to enroll at the University of Utah. Michael Martinez was the third Hispanic person to graduate from the University of Utah School of Law, in 1976.[4] He graduated early in January 1976 and was admitted to the bar in April 1976.

After graduating from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah and passing the bar, Michael Martinez became the first practicing Hispanic lawyer in the state. He credits the diligence of law professor Lionel Frankel who took in an interest in him and other minority students, helping them navigate the bureaucracy of the school.[2]

Michael Martinez began his career in the office of the Attorney General. He served as Assistant Utah Attorney General.

He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as Deputy General Counsel of the Equal Opportunity Commission In 1982. He supervised all of the government's attorneys who handled employment discrimination law for two years.[2] He was co-workers with Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. Thomas was serving as chairman of the U.S. EEOC[5]

In 1983, he co-chaired national hearings regarding the discrimination of Hispanics by the EEOC, which culminated in hearings before the U.S. Senate.[6]

In 1984, he returned to Utah when he was appointed as Chief Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney, working under the elected County Attorney Ted Cannon. He supervised all criminal and civil litigation.[7]

As the President of the National Hispanic Bar Association, he gave testimony at the 1987 U.S. Senate hearings on the confirmation of Anthony Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court. Along with Antonia Hernandez, who was President and General Counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, they raised doubts about Judge Kennedy's civil rights positions. It was the first time the Hispanic organizations had been asked to weigh in on a Supreme Court nomination. Joe Biden was chair of the Senate Judicial Hearings [8]

He went on to found his own private practice where he focused on representing Spanish-speaking clients. He operated it from 1988-2010 and was active in Utah politics.

In 1992, he helped to found the Utah Minority Bar Association along with 60 other minority lawyers, and he served as President in 1993. He was also appointed as the first minority member of the Utah State Bar Association, which governs all Utah attorneys.[9]

• Hispanic National Bar Association, President, 1987-1988
• Governor Norm Bangerter appointed him to serve on the Salt Lake Community College Board of Trustees in 1991; he served two four-year terms (1991-1999)
• President of the Utah Minority Bar, 1993 [9]
• Small Business Administration Board, member
• Small Business Administration Fairness Board
• U.S. Senate Task Force on Hispanics
• Utah Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, elected Chairman of the committee (1998)[1]
• Utah Job Service Advisory Committee [1]
• Governor's Hispanic Advisory Committee, chairman [1]
• University of Utah Health Sciences and Hospital Advisory Board [1]
• Women's Business Center Advisory Board [1]
• Multi-Ethnic Board of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce [1]
• Regional Regulatory Fairness Board Member[16]

• Utah State Bar Raymond S. Uno Award for Advancement of Minorities in the Law, 1997[17]
• Utah Minority Bar Association, 2011, Honoring the original founders of the association[18]
• Honored with the Cesar Chavez Award at the 2nd Annual Cesar Chavez Peace and Justice Awards Luncheon for his work with Utah's Hispanic community providing legal services, often to non-English speakers [19]

Michael Martinez has been a vocal advocate for increasing minority representation in the judiciary. He wrote an op-ed about it in the Deseret News. He was appointed as the first minority member of the Utah State Bar Commission.[9] His advocacy built on the work of the Utah Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Legal System (Spring 1998), which reviewed the judicial appointment process and the number of minority judges appointed to the bench.

Another area of advocacy was to expose how city courts issued traffic tickets solely to generate revenue, not to further justice, arguing that city judges are city employees, not members of the judicial branch of government. He was published in the Utah Bar Journal in April 2009.[20]