Judy Perry Martinez has been selected to receive the prestigious 2026 American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics, which recognizes attorneys, judges, or others who have rendered exemplary service in the areas of professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence. Martinez, of counsel at the New Orleans law firm Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn LLP, will receive the award at the American Inns of Court 2026 Celebration of Excellence at the Supreme Court of the United States in October.

“Judy is a leader and a doer,” writes U.S. Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who nominated Martinez for the award. “How, you may ask, can one person do all of this while raising four children? The answer is that Judy cares deeply about the law, she is a whirlwind of energy and organization, she works collaboratively and gives others credit, and she has done it all while managing to earn the goodwill and respect of her peers.”

Martinez began her career at Simon Peragine in 1982 and was the first woman elected to the firm management committee. After two decades as a commercial litigator, and having engaged in capital habeas post-conviction work, she left in 2003 and spent the next dozen years at Northrop Grumman Corporation, serving first as assistant general counsel and then vice president and the company's first chief compliance officer. She retired from Northrop Grumman in 2015 to spend a year in residence as a fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative.

Martinez served as president of the American Bar Association from 2019 to 2020. She has served on the board of Innocence Project-New Orleans, the New Orleans Pro Bono Project and the American Bar Foundation and held leadership positions in the Louisiana State Bar Association and the New Orleans Bar Association. She is a member of the American Law Institute.

In 2025, she received the American Inns of Court James E. Coleman Jr. Award for Professionalism in the Fifth Circuit. In 2026, Louisiana Public Broadcasting named her a Louisiana Legend to recognize her lasting impact on the state.

Martinez earned an undergraduate degree in marketing from the University of New Orleans in 1979 and went on to earn 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 nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.

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Judy Perry Martinez, Esq. selected to receive prestigious 2026 American Inns of Court Lewis F Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics.