Martinez will play a crucial role in the executive leadership team of the university as head of the legal department. In this role, she will handle important issues that affect the community and offer advice on governance, legal matters, and related subjects. The date of her appointment is April 1, 2024.
LMU President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D., stated that SVP Martinez’s depth of knowledge and experience will be beneficial to the university as it develops an internal legal function that proactively engages key leaders and units to assess and mitigate legal risk and optimize our legal compliance in support of our mission, values, and strategic goals.
Martinez comes to LMU from the University of New Mexico, where she oversaw an office that included five campuses and the UNM Health System in her capacity as general attorney. She manages the public records office, privacy office, and about 100 cases that are now pending litigation in addition to advising the Board of Regents, university president, CEO of the UNM Health System, campus chancellors, and senior leadership.
Martinez expressed her excitement about contributing her experience as a general counsel in higher education to an institution with the stature and influence of LMU across the country. She is drawn to LMU’s Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount missions and is eager to build a reliable legal resource that will help the university meet its strategic goals and, in the process, spark a brighter future for all.
Martinez led an in-house legal team and worked with counterpart in-house counsels at various CUNY campuses while serving as general counsel and vice chancellor for legal affairs at the City University of New York before to coming to the University of New Mexico. Martinez worked for more than eight years as the board secretary and general counsel at Colorado College.
She has also worked in the commercial sector, where she specialized in P-20 education law for both public and private sectors. She also provided outside general counsel on a wide range of public law matters to elected officials, Colorado cities and towns, and other governmental and private institutions. Martinez received her Bachelor of Arts in political science from Yale University and her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
