Michael Martinez

Senior Counsel

Michael (Mike) Ceja Martinez is Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward.

Mike has extensive Government experience in both the career and political civil service, in addition to his litigation experience in private practice. He served most recently as the Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Mike helped lead the Office of the General Counsel and provided policy leadership on dozens of regulations impacting the 2.3 million Federal civil servants in close coordination with OPM leadership, the White House, and the Office of Management and Budget. Mike was central in the administration’s efforts to protect the civil service and merit system principles from politicization. He was also selected to the President’s Leadership Workshop, a White House program to develop and deepen the management and executive experience of senior political appointees.

Immediately prior to his position at OPM, Mike served as Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General at U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, where he assisted the Assistant Attorney General with managing the Division and its 600 employees. He worked closely with the Offices of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and Associate Attorney General on matters important to the Division, including the creation and rollout of DOJ’s inaugural Office of Environmental Justice.

Mike formerly served as a DOJ trial attorney and as a litigator at Steptoe & Johnson LLP. He clerked for the Honorable S. James Otero on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the Honorable Philip R. Martinez on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. He holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Senior Editor on the Columbia Law Review and President of the Latino/a Law Students Association, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Stanford University. Mike is currently licensed to practice in Washington, D.C. and California.