Featured Member: Jacqueline B. Martinez
Jacqueline B. Martinez, founder of Pittsburgh’s JBM Legal LLC, is a graduate of Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. She is in her second year as secretary of the PBA, previously serving on the Board as Zone 12 governor and minority-at-large governor. Jackie is also the vice chair of the Bylaws Committee and in her second term as co-chair of the Immigration Law Committee. She is on the council of the Solo and Small Firm Section and a member and past chair of the Membership Development Committee. Jackie currently serves on CCBL (Conference of County Bar Leaders).
A long-time member of the PBA Minority Bar Committee, Jackie was the committee’s 2017-18 representative to the PBA Nominating Committee. She has previously served as co-chair and co-vice chair of the committee’s executive council. She also has served on several subcommittees and been a featured speaker and moderator at the Minority Attorney Conference.
Active in the organized bar at the local and national level, Jackie is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA), currently serving on its Board of Governors and previously served as an Education Committee chair and on council of the Young Lawyers Division and Solo and Small Firm Committee. Jackie currently serves as chair of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and on the AILA National Board of Governors and a variety of its committees.
Jackie served on the American Civil Liberties Union Board of Directors, Pittsburgh Chapter, and as a member of its Legal, Public Education and Diversity committees. Jackie was a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer for three years and served on the CASA Board.
Jackie immigrated to the USA with her family from El Salvador and is a mother of two amazing women and one beautiful granddaughter. In honor of her late husband, Jackie created the John Alan Meehan Citizenship Institute under the ACBA Bar Foundation, which provides stipends to summer fellows who intern with community-based immigrant organizations and funds citizenship programs in Western Pennsylvania.
Past Featured Members
J. Lynette Carter
LaToya Winfield Bellamy
Arlene Marshall-Hockensmith
Su Ming Yeh
Anthony D. Cox Jr.
Trent Hargrove
Judge Cheryl Lynne Austin
Philip Yoon
Gina M. Thomas
Nigel Scott
Judge Stephanie Domitrovich
Ana Paulina Gomez
Judge Nicola Henry Taylor
Mission
The mission of the Minority Bar Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (hereinafter PBA) is to assure full and equal participation of minorities in the PBA, the legal profession, and the justice system in general. In order to achieve this mission, the Minority Bar Committee will:
- Identify and promote opportunities that allow minorities within the legal profession to participate fully in the work, responsibilities, and rewards of the PBA and the legal profession in general. Included in this objective are matters relating to the advancement of minorities within law firms and other professional and business entities, job opportunities for minorities, elimination of racial discrimination in the legal profession and within the broader community, and effective avenues for minority lawyers and judges to avail themselves of opportunities within the PBA to address issues of special interest to minority lawyers.
- Monitor the current status of minorities in the legal profession and the justice system in general, identify their career paths and goals, and actively promote their advancement and achievement.
- Develop educational programs in the way of seminars and surveys, among other measures, to address discrimination against minorities within the legal profession, and the justice system in general.
- Make recommendations to the PBA Board of Governors and House of Delegates for action on issues affecting minorities within the legal profession and the justice system in general.
- Make recommendations to the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government, and other groups within the justice system on issues affecting racial minorities and their communities in accordance with the PBA Bylaws.