Martinez graduated
cum laude with distinction from
Yale University and
magna cum laude from
Harvard Law School. During her first year in law school, she was awarded the Sears Prize, which goes to the two students with the highest first year grades. She served as managing editor of the
Harvard Law Review and was twice published in the law review. After law school, she clerked for Justice
Stephen Breyer, Judge
Patricia Wald of the
United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and Judge
Guido Calabresi of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She joined Stanford Law School's faculty in 2003, after working as an attorney at the law firm
Jenner & Block in
Washington, D.C., and as a senior research fellow and visiting lecturer at Yale University. She has twice been named one of the "100 Most Influential Hispanics" and an "Elite Woman" by Hispanic Business magazine." She also was named to the National Law Journal's list of "Top 40 Lawyers Under 40" and the American Lawyer's "Young Litigators Fab Fifty." She also has received the Civil Rights Advocacy Award from the La Raza Lawyers of San Francisco and the Ray of Hope Award from Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE). When asked to cite the best U.S. Supreme Court decision since 1960 by
Time, she cited
New York Times Co. v. U.S. (1971). She has pointed to the Japanese internment case,
Korematsu v. U.S. (1944), as among the worst opinions. Martinez represented
José Padilla in the
Supreme Court in
Rumsfeld v. Padilla. She is a member of the
American Law Institute and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ==Publications==