Veronica Root Martinez is a nationally recognized expert in professional and organizational ethics, corporate misconduct, compliance, and monitorships. Her interdisciplinary research shapes best practices in ethics, compliance, and governance across public and private sector organizations, with a particular focus on helping organizations foster ethical cultures, comply with legal and regulatory mandates, and create inclusive workplace environments.
Martinez’s scholarship has been published in leading legal journals, including the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review. Her book, Building an Effective Ethics and Compliance Program, is forthcoming from Edward Elgar. She is also a co-author of the 5th edition of Securities Litigation, Enforcement and Complianceand the 6th edition of Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach.
At Duke University, Martinez holds the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Distinguished Professorship of Law and a courtesy appointment in the Fuqua School of Business. She teaches courses on Contracts; Ethics and Professional Responsibility; Securities Litigation, Enforcement, and Compliance; Legal Scholarship; Corporate Compliance and Ethics; Judicial Ethics in the Bolch Judicial Studies LL.M. program; and Ethics in Management at Fuqua. She also teaches executive education courses that help leaders and organizations strengthen compliance, governance, ethical culture, AI ethics, purpose-driven leadership, and effective decision-making.
Martinez currently chairs Duke Law’s Academic Careers Committee and the University Priorities Committee. Her past service includes membership on the Finance Committee of Duke’s Board of Trustees, the Duke University Institutional Compliance Advisory Committee, and Academic Council.
Before joining Duke, Martinez was the Robert & Marion Short Scholar and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, where she became the first Black woman to receive tenure. She received multiple teaching and service awards, including the Distinguished Professor of the Year award, and directed the Program on Ethics, Compliance & Inclusion for three years.
Beyond academia, Martinez is a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the American Law Institute. She previously completed a four-year term on FINRA’s National Adjudicatory Council and has served as a consultant to the OECD on global anti-corruption compliance initiatives.
A Georgetown University alumna, Martinez earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as Managing Editor of the Chicago Journal of International Law. After law school, she clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced law at a large law firm in Washington, D.C.
