Judy Perry Martinez, Esquire, to Receive the 2025 American Inns of Court James E. Coleman Jr. Award for Professionalism in the Fifth Circuit

Judy Perry Martinez has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court James E. Coleman Jr. Award for Professionalism in the Fifth Circuit. Martinez is of counsel at Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn LLP, where she also worked between 1982 and 2003 as a commercial litigator, partner, and member of the governing committee. Martinez will receive the award during the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference in May.

“Perhaps the only things more remarkable than [the] all-star list of local, regional, and national law leaders signing on to endorse one candidate are a) the glowing things they said about Judy Perry Martinez, and b) the rapidity with which they offered to support this endeavor,” write Janis van Meerveld, U.S. magistrate judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and Judy Barrasso, Esquire, a founding member of Barrasso, Usdin, Kupperman, Freeman & Sarver LLC, who nominated Martinez. “The quickest response was about two minutes; the longest was less than a day.”

After finishing her first stint at Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn in 2003, Martinez joined Northrop Grumman Corporation. By 2011, she had been named vice president and chief compliance officer. She also served on the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council. After retiring from Northrop Grumman in 2015, Martinez became a fellow in residence at the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University. She then returned to New Orleans to focus on public service at Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn.

Throughout her career, Martinez has been active in the American Bar Association. She served as the association’s president from 2019 to 2020. In 2011, she chaired the association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which evaluates all nominees to the federal bench. More recently, she chaired its Presidential Commission on the Future of Legal Services. She served on the board of directors of the American Bar Foundation, is a fellow of the Louisiana Bar Foundation and a member of the American Law Institute.

Deeply committed to public service, Martinez helped to establish the New Orleans Pro Bono Project in 1986. Martinez currently serves as the vice president of the World Justice Project, an international group that works to advance the rule of law around the world.

Martinez earned her undergraduate degree from the University of New Orleans in 1979. She earned a cum laude law degree from Tulane University Law School in 1982.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.

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Judy Perry Martinez, Esq., selected to receive prestigious 2025 American @InnsofCourt James E. Coleman Jr. Award for Professionalism in the 5th Circuit. bit.ly/AIC_Martinez2025 #InnsofCourt #Tulane #UofNO #spsr_law