Corporate Counsel honoree: Heidi Martinez

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Heidi Martinez

Xerox Corp.

If you’d have asked Xerox Corp. Chief IP Counsel Heidi Martinez in college where her post-graduation future was, she wouldn’t have been able to give you an answer.

Sure, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Rochester, but it wasn’t until her father suggested law school that she found a career path.

“I took a position as a litigation paralegal at Nixon Hargrave (now Nixon Peabody),” Martinez explains. “I worked on an arbitration and a trial in federal court during the year I was there, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that law would be a good fit.”

During her time with Kodak, Martinez helped the company with a patent lawsuit against Sony, and she realized that she enjoyed intellectual property work.

“I really enjoy learning about technology, and the ever-changing patent landscape offers plenty of strategic challenges,” she says. “So intellectual property law turned out to be the perfect fit (for me).”

She would end up spending eight years at Eastman Kodak Co. before a five-year stint with Ward Greenberg Heller & Reidy, moving on to become one of Xerox’s IP counsels in 2013 and assuming the role of chief IP counsel in 2018.

“I think my broad-based experience in many other areas of the law helps me to think creatively about how to ensure that Xerox has the IP rights it needs to win in the marketplace,” Martinez says.

She wants to make sure that the people behind her get the credit she believes they deserve, from her husband Raul juggling his own legal career with the demands of parenthood to various mentors over the years.

“It’s really the people around you who make you what you are, so this award is as much a reflection of their talents as it is of my work,” exclaims Martinez.