Leo P. Martinez, Vice Chair, is Dean Emeritus and Albert Abramson Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. He served as College’s Academic Dean for twelve years and he served as the Acting Chancellor and Dean of the College in the 2009-10 academic year. He is currently a Managing Director at Andersen, the tax and financial services firm.

Professor Martinez is a co-author of a leading insurance law casebook (now in its 9^th edition), a co-editor of a four-volume insurance treatise, and the author of many articles on tax law, insurance law, and legal education that have appeared in journals ranging from the Stanford Law Review to the Tulane Law Review to the Yale Law & Policy Review to the China EU Law Journal to the Global Jurist. He has lectured on legal education, tax law, and insurance law throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America.

Professor Martinez is the past Chair of the Council of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (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) for which 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 five different non-profit organizations including Public Media Venture Group (a consortium of more than two dozen public television stations); KQED, Inc.; Public Advocates, Inc.; the St. Francis Hospital Foundation; and Public Media Company. His other service includes 14 years on the board of Access/Lex, 10 years as member of the board of CollegeTrack (a Bay Area-based organization that provides support for high school students living in low-income and under-served areas within the United States), and 6 years as a member of the University of Kansas (his alma mater) Chancellor’s Advisory Board.

Professor Martinez has been honored by the UC Law 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 UC Law Board of Directors approved the establishment of the $100,000 endowed Leo P. Martinez student scholarship.

Current Term

2022 – 2025