Profile. Year of service
Author | Amanda Robert |
Pages | 62-64 |
ABA JOURNAL | WINTER 2019–2020
62
ABA Insider | PROFILE
Judy Perry Martinez became
president of the ABA at the close
of the annual meeting in San
Francisco after 35 years of service
with the association.
Martinez, who is of counsel with
Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn in
New Orleans, has held several leader-
ship roles with the ABA. She served as
chair of the Commission on the Future
of Legal Services and as special adviser
to the Center for Innovation. She was
chair of the Standing Committee on the
Federal Judiciary and a member of both
the House of Delegates and Board of
Governors.
Martinez spoke with the ABA
Journal in August about her experiences
PROFILE
Year of
Service
A Q&A with ABA President
Judy Perry Martinez
BY AMANDA ROBERT
Appalachia who needed help addressing
legal issues related to poverty.
Rosenberg drove his family to
Prestonsburg, where he heard about
the devastation caused by strip mining,
unsafe mine conditions and black lung
disease. He also heard that area hospi-
tals wouldn’t serve people who didn’t
have any money.
He opened the Kentucky ofce of
AppalReD, a federally nanced legal
services program based in Charleston,
West Virginia. A month after he arrived,
an explosion ripped through a mine in
nearby Leslie County, killing 38 miners.
He represented the sole survivor and
discovered that mine operators used
illegal explosives and neglected safety
requirements.
“We continued to see that over time;
folks who didn’t want their land mined
and coalminers who complained about
safety conditions needing legal represen-
tation,” Rosenberg says. “Many mem-
bers of the bar in this rural area were
retained by coal companies. That was
part of the genesis of why we came.”
Rosenberg also helped with family,
consumer, housing and disability issues
during his long tenure with AppalReD,
which split from the West Virginia ofce
and became a separate organization in
1973.
The legal services program gradu-
ally grew to nearly a dozen ofces and
50 lawyers and staff, Rosenberg says.
Despite years of funding cuts, it still op-
erates six ofces and serves thousands
of low-income clients in 37 counties in
Kentucky.
“As far as legal services goes, every
case is important,” Rosenberg says. “It’s
an invaluable service when you save
someone’s home from foreclosure or
you help a veteran with housing. And
when you have people who devote their
careers to that, it’s a great thing.”
Rosenberg has been the director
emeritus of AppalReD since 2002 and
serves on the boards for the Kentucky
Equal Justice Center, East Kentucky
Leadership Foundation and East Ken-
tucky House of Hope homeless shelter.
He and Jean have worked on several
other efforts to improve their communi-
ty, including opening the East Kentucky
Science Center. Former Kentucky Su-
preme Court Justice Janet Stumbo has
known the Rosenbergs since the 1980s
and recognizes the positive changes they
have made in their state.
“They—meaning John and Jean—
just have a vast affection for the region,
for the people they have worked with,”
she says. “It’s been a real blessing for
eastern Kentucky to have them here.” Q
with the association and goals for her
year as president. An extended version
of this Q&A is at ABAJournal.com.
What was most memorable from
your year as president-elect?
The way that Bob and I started off
our respective years. Bob Carlson as
president, and I as president-elect,
going down to the border, spending a
week doing pro bono asylum work and
visiting the relief centers and the respite
centers. Also observing in federal court
and in immigrant court, and actually
going into the detention centers to meet
with detainees. That really set the stage
for understanding even more deeply
what we need to do in terms of the
immigration challenges that are facing
our country right now. Making sure
that due process is guaranteed for all
involved in those proceedings, as well
as understanding the great need for pro
bono assistance not only at the border
in South Texas but all over the country.
What are some of the goals you
have set for your term, and how
do you plan to accomplish them?
My goals for my term are the associa-
tion’s four goals. They are very succinct-
ly stated: to serve our members, im-
prove our profession, enhance diversity
and eliminate bias and advance the rule
of law. And if we can make progress—
and I mean I aim to make signicant
progress on each of those goals— then
I will know that I have had a year that
ABA President Judy Perry Martinez
Photo by Adrienne Battistella
Continued on page 64
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