Roman Martinez is an associate at Latham & Watkins and a member of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice. His practice focuses primarily on appeals in the US Supreme Court, the US Courts of Appeals, and state appellate courts. Mr. Martinez has handled civil and criminal matters involving a wide range of constitutional and statutory issues, and has argued cases in the D.C. and Federal Circuits, as well as in federal district court. He also provides pre-litigation counseling to clients in a variety of matters involving constitutional, statutory, and administrative law.
Mr. Martinez led a team from Latham that successfully defeated a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulation depriving veterans of important due process rights when seeking disability benefits. His opening brief in the case persuaded the Department of Justice that the VA had promulgated the rule in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, and that the VA would have to repeal the rule immediately. Mr. Martinez has also authored appellate briefs in high-profile cases in a broad range of substantive areas including administrative law, civil procedure, constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, voting rights, product liability law and the law of arbitration.
Prior to joining Latham, Mr. Martinez served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts of the US Supreme Court, and to Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. Martinez also served as Advisor on the Iraqi Constitutional Process to the US Ambassador to Iraq in 2005; as Director for Iraq at the National Security Council staff from 2004 to 2005; and as an advisor on Iraq’s postwar political transition at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq from 2003 to 2004. He received the US Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award for his service in Iraq.
Mr. Martinez is a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Cato Supreme Court Review, and other publications. He also serves on the D.C. Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Procedures.