Leo P. Martinez holds the Albert Abramson Professor of Law Chair at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He served as UC Hastings’ Academic Dean for twelve years, he served as the Acting Chancellor and Dean of the College in the 2009-10 academic year, and he is currently serving as the UC Hastings Interim General Counsel.

Professor Martinez is a co-author of a leading insurance law casebook (now in its 8^th edition), a co-editor of a four-volume insurance treatise, and the author of many articles on legal education, insurance law, and tax law that have appeared in journals ranging from the Stanford Law Review to the Tulane Law Review to the Yale Law and Policy Review to the China EU Law Journal. He has lectured on legal education, insurance law, and tax law throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America.

Professor Martinez is a member of the Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar for the American Bar Association (ABA)(the accrediting body for U.S. law schools). He is a past president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) for which he served both on the AALS Executive Committee and the Membership Review Committee. He is a current member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and he was one of the academic Advisers on the ALI’s Restatement of the Law of Liability Insurance. He is an elected honorary fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel. He has chaired or served on more than two-dozen ABA law school site evaluation visits and he has assisted more than ten law schools in their strategic planning. He was a member of the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education that issued its final report in 2014.

Outside of academia, Professor Martinez has been an active participant in local and national non-profit organizations that seek to improve the world. He has chaired the boards of four different non-profit organizations including KQED, Inc.; Public Advocates, Inc.; the St. Francis Hospital Foundation; and Public Media Company. He is a member of the board of CollegeTrack, a Bay Area-based organization that provides mentoring for high school students living in low-income and under-served areas within the United States and he has served a member of the University of Kansas Chancellor’s Advisory Board.

Professor Martinez was recently honored by the UC Hastings Board of Directors with its Visionary Award. He has received the Annual Latino/a Law Professors Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Latino/a community in general and Latino/a law professors in particular, he has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus by UC Hastings Law Raza Law Students Association, and he was recognized in 2011 for leadership in the legal arena and in the public interest with the Public Advocates Voices of Conscience Award. In 2010, in recognition for his service to the College the Hastings Board of Directors approved the establishment of the $100,000 endowed Leo P. Martinez student scholarship at Hastings.

Current Term

2022 – 2025