Samantha is a civil litigator who is Board certified in Labor and Employment law.  She has been working since she was 11 and held many different jobs before attending law school.  Among these, she worked food prep at a burger joint; sold gourmet Swiss chocolate at the mall; taught English to adults; waited tables at a casino; ran teen programs for the Girl Scouts; and helped domestic violence victims ask judges for protection. 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. These experiences taught her as much about being an employment lawyer as law school did.

Samantha is a native Houstonian and a child of journalists and writers. After attending Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Samantha graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, 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, representing medium to large corporations in employment disputes and airlines in labor union arbitrations.  She established Martinez Firm, PLLC in November 2016, in order to represent employees as well.

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 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 2010-2025 (a Thomson Reuters service), an honor bestowed upon only 5% of the state’s lawyers; and she and her firm were selected as a Best Lawyer and Best Law Firm 2024-25 by BestLawyers.com. 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 practice-centered approach to teaching law.  Samantha was the primary author of the chapters regarding discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation/identity, and pregnancy; 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.

In addition to litigation, Samantha also works as a mediator and coach, helping people reach solutions they cannot on their own.  Over her 25+ years as an employment lawyer, she has spoken to thousands of people about their jobs and about working with others.  She takes a practical, client-centered approach to this work.

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

For her complete resume, click here