Christina L. Martini is a partner with DLA Piper. She is Vice Chair of the Chicago Intellectual Property Practice Group and is a member of the firm's Policy Committee. Ms. Martini focuses her practice on domestic and international trademark and copyright law, as well as domain name, Internet, advertising, unfair competition and entertainment law. She has extensive experience in counseling, prosecution, enforcement, due diligence and licensing matters, and in assisting clients in protecting their intellectual property rights through litigation and other means, including the courts and uniform dispute resolution procedures.

Ms. Martini regularly advises clients in the areas of brand development and management, and she develops, manages, maintains and enforces large intellectual property portfolios. She works closely with clients from the beginning stages of product development and provides strategic advice in searching and filing for brand names domestically and internationally. She creates global filing strategies to maximize clients' protection of their valuable brands in a streamlined, cost-effective way, and manages the global registration, maintenance, enforcement, licensing and disposition of those rights. Ms. Martini also creates and implements intellectual property policies and process plans which are specifically tailored to meet clients' legal and business needs. In addition, she has extensive experience in negotiating and drafting a wide variety of agreements which address various intellectual property rights. She has also been instrumental in numerous litigation successes in federal and state courts, and in domain name proceedings before various administrative organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Ms. Martini's experience reaches across a wide variety of business sectors, including food, food service, beverage, housewares, apparel, energy, agriculture, consulting, restaurant, franchising, advertising, real estate and financial services. One of her many areas of focus is in the pharmaceutical/life sciences sector, which is known for its unique, high-stakes challenges in the development and protection of brands.

Ms. Martini served as on-loan intellectual property counsel for both Kraft Foods, Inc. and Searle/Monsanto for approximately one year. During both secondments, she gained invaluable insight and experience regarding the legal and business responsibilities of in-house counsel.

In 2011, Ms. Martini was named in the inaugural edition of World Trademark Review 1000, a guide to the world's leading trademark practitioners. Ms. Martini was identified as an outstanding lawyer who plays a significant role in developing and implementing brand strategies for clients in both global and local markets, and in protecting clients' trademark rights in the event of infringement.

Ms. Martini is one of only 165 lawyers named to the 2010 BTI Client Service All-Star Team for Law Firms, which recognizes lawyers who "top the charts in client service excellence" and "have packaged proactive outreach, counseling and a healthy dose of practicality with their deep understanding of clients' business." Lawyers appear on the list only if they are named by clients in an unprompted manner through BTI's research. The rankings are driven solely by feedback received directly from corporate counsel from large and Fortune 1000 companies.

Based on peer and client reviews, Ms. Martini has been selected as one of America's leading intellectual property lawyers by Chambers & Partners, a respected English research firm. Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business comments that clients praise her for her background in industrial engineering, which gives her the "extraordinary ability to produce appropriate analysis for any situation and offer outstanding solutions to the client's varied and complex legal needs." Chambers has further noted that she has "excellent client service skills and is devoted to ensuring that all needs and objectives are satisfied" and has praised her for her "exceptional sense of responsibility to her clients." Ms. Martini has also been designated an Illinois Super Lawyer, as the result of research projects conducted jointly by Law & Politics and Chicago magazines.

In 2010, the Law Bulletin Publishing Company, publisher of Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer magazine, named Ms. Martini one of "40 Illinois Attorneys under Forty to Watch." As the Law Bulletin notes, clients, colleagues and peers consider her an "extremely talented," "outstanding" and "profoundly committed" professional who "has very sharp analytical skills, great intuition and ability to work in the gray areas" and "has a very practical wisdom, something you might expect to see in someone who has practiced law for over 30 years." Click here to view her "40 Under Forty" profile.

In 2009, Chicago Lawyer magazine featured Ms. Martini in its cover story "The Next Generation of Leaders," as one of a small group of "leaders of the future" who "go above and beyond practicing law because they care about what their firm looks like today and will look like in the future."

Ms. Martini is a speaker, author and columnist, and she frequently shares her thought leadership with respect to current issues and trends impacting both the legal and business landscapes. Premiering in April 2010, the Chicago Lawyer is featuring Ms. Martini and her monthly video column, "Inside Out," which compares and contrasts private practice and in-house counsel perspectives on these issues. These columns can be found on YouTube and at www.chicagolawyermagazine.com. Click here to view the complete archive of Ms. Martini's Chicago Lawyer columns. Beginning in January 2012, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin is featuring Ms. Martini's monthly column "Paradigm Shift," which focuses on different facets of the practice of law which have been impacted by the seismic changes in the profession over the past several years, and the business context which drives both the legal profession and professional service organizations as a whole. Click here to view the complete archive of Ms. Martini's Chicago Daily Law Bulletin columns.

Ms. Martini is committed to making a positive difference in the careers and lives of others. For five years, she served as the Chicago office's Hiring Partner. In addition, for the past several years, she has been an integral part of DLA Piper's diversity efforts, including her involvement on the Chicago office and National Diversity Committees. She is also on the National Steering Committee of DLA Piper's women's initiative, the Leadership Alliance for Women (LAW). In 2008, she was appointed as DLA Piper's first ombudsperson to support diversity and inclusion efforts and, in particular, for the LGBT community.

Ms. Martini serves on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms. She also sits on the Executive Board of Directors and is Co-Founder of Hispanic Majority, an organization committed to supporting the next generation of Latino leadership. She is a member of the Chicago Committee on Women's Initiatives in Law Firms and sits on its Policy Committee. In addition, Ms. Martini sits on the Board of Advisors for DLA Piper's Marbury Institute. Her extensive pro bono work has included co-chairing the International Trademark Association's Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition for the Midwest region.

Ms. Martini has been with DLA Piper (and its legacy firms Piper Rudnick and Rudnick & Wolfe) since she graduated law school. She graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1994, where she was Notes & Comments Editor for the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business. During law school, Ms. Martini was a legal intern in the Office of the General Counsel at Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Prior to law school, Ms. Martini graduated with highest distinction from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Bachelors of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. She completed her degree in three years and graduated with University Honors as a James Scholar. During engineering school, Ms. Martini worked at Motorola, Inc. as an engineering intern specializing in manufacturing and optimization. She also served as a research assistant for the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Publications and Thought Leadership

Ms. Martini has been featured in the following media/publications (please click on the links below to view the full interviews/stories):

• Paradigm Shift featured column, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin Archive (January 2012)
• Inside Out featured column, Chicago Lawyer Archive (April 2010 – February 2012)
• "Lawyers Must Focus on Their New Year's Resolutions," Paradigm Shift featured coloumn, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (January 10, 2012)
• "Becoming an Amazing Leader," Inside Out featured column, Chicago Lawyer (December 2011/January 2012) Column*
• "Emotional Intelligence and Diversity: Empowering Success," Intellectual Property and Technology News, Issue 11, Q3 2011
• "Emotional Intelligence: Cultivating Professional Success Through Mentoring," Intellectual Property and Technology News, Issue 10, Q2 2011
• Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers in Business (2011)
• "Emotional Intelligence: Driving Success in Today's Business Environment," Intellectual Property and Technology News, Issue 9, Q1 (2011)
• "Identifying the world's leading trademark firms and practitioners," World Trademark Review 1000 (February/March 2011)
• "40 Under Forty," Law Bulletin Publishing Company (September 2010)
• Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2010)
• Intellectual Property and Technology News, Issue 6, Q2 (2010)
• "Two Chicago Lawyers Help Form Hispanic Political Action Committee," Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (March 31, 2010)
• "DLA Piper Celebrating Women's History Month," Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (March 12, 2010)
• "From Hospital Night Shift to General Counsel," (Commenting on Hispanic Majority's Chair, Pedro DeJesus), Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (March 11, 2010)
• Intellectual Property and Technology News, Issue 5, Q1 (2010)
• "In-House Counsel Name Favorite IP Attorneys," Law360 (January 27, 2010)
• "Some Firms See Client Services As a Full-Time Job," Law360 (January 15, 2010)
• The BTI Client Service All-Stars for Law Firms 2010
• "Rescuecom v. Google: Changing the Future of Keyword Advertising?" Intellectual Property and Technology News, Issue 3, Q3 (2009)
• "EU Efforts to Protect Marks Could Harry IP Holders," Law360 (August 7, 2009)
• "The Next Generation of Leaders," Chicago Lawyer (June 2009)
• Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009)
• "Demands for Alternative Fees and Cost Cuts Build as GCs Feel the Pinch," The National Law Journal (March 30, 2009)
• "DLA Piper, in a First, Appoints Vice Chairs for Key Chicago Practice Groups," The National Law Journal (January 22, 2009)
• "Around the Water Cooler: DLA Piper and Accenture's Partnership," Chicago Lawyer (July 25, 2008)
• "Diversity Works," DLA Piper's Diversity Newsletter (Winter 2008)
• "Diversity Works," DLA Piper's Diversity Newsletter (Fall 2006)

^{*Copyright 2011 Law Bulletin Publishing Company. Posted with permission.}