Biography

Samantha is a civil litigator who is Board certified in Labor and Employment law. She has worked food prep at a burger joint; taught English to adults; waited tables at a casino; run teen programs for the Girl Scouts; sold gourmet Swiss chocolate at the mall; and helped domestic violence victims ask judges for protection, among many other jobs. She has worked in places large and small, for good pay and for almost no pay, and in various parts of the country and world. And these experiences taught her as much about being a lawyer as law school did.

Samantha is a native Houstonian and a child of journalists and writers. After attending Houston’s High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Samantha graduated magna cum laude from an Ivy League school, majoring in Comparative Literature. In 2000, she graduated second in her class from the University of Houston Law Center. She worked for six years at large, prestigious law firm, and then co-founded a boutique litigation firm in 2006.  She established Martinez Firm, PLLC in November 2016, so that she could represent both employers and employees in disputes.

Samantha is completely fluent in Spanish. She grew up listening to her Puerto Rican grandmother and great-grandmother speak Spanish, but learned the language as an adult and studied art and later the Mexican legal system in Guadalajara and Mexico City.  She has helped Spanish-speaking clients here, and represented companies from Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain.

Samantha has been voted a Texas Super Lawyer and Texas Rising Star 2010-2023 (a Thomson Reuters service), an honor bestowed upon only 5% of the state’s lawyers. She is frequently asked to speak regarding her area of specialty, labor and employment law.  Samantha is the co-author, with UNT Dallas College of Law Professor Michael Maslanka, of the law school textbook Experiencing Employment Discrimination Law (West Academic Publishing 2021), which takes a practical, practice-oriented approach to teaching law.  Samantha was the primary author of the chapters regarding gender, sexual orientation and identity, and pregnancy discrimination; harassment; and disability discrimination, among others.    Via trial and arbitration, she has prepared hundreds of witnesses to testify, and cross examined hundreds of adverse witnesses.

Samantha has been married for 25 years and has two adult children and two stepchildren.

For her complete resume, click here.

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