Dechert

Global Co-Chair of Dechert's Intellectual Property practice, Partner

Christina (Tina) L. Martini, global co-chair of Dechert’s intellectual property practice, focuses on domestic and international trademark and copyright law, as well as domain name disputes, internet and social media issues, advertising, unfair competition and entertainment law.

Ms. Martini counsels clients across the full spectrum of soft IP issues in industries that include pharmaceutical and life sciences, professional services, food and beverage, housewares, apparel, energy, agriculture, consulting, restaurant, franchising, advertising, real estate and financial services.

Her global experience includes brand development and management as well as developing, maintaining and enforcing large global IP portfolios. Ms. Martini partners with companies 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 handles the global registration, maintenance, enforcement, licensing and disposition of those rights. Ms. Martini also designs and implements tailored IP policies and process plans that align with clients’ legal and business objectives. She has extensive experience negotiating and drafting a wide variety of agreements that address various IP rights across jurisdictions worldwide.

Ms. Martini maintains an extremely active global enforcement and litigation practice, achieving significant successes in federal and state courts and before administrative bodies such as the World Intellectual Property Organization. She has a proven track record addressing online enforcement challenges, including domain name disputes, third-party website infringements, social media platform violations and online marketplace abuses. She effectively combats fraud, phishing, impersonation and other digital threats by leveraging IP tools and developing sophisticated, multipronged enforcement approaches.

Ms. Martini has also served as an expert witness on trademark, unfair competition and trade dress law, as well as U.S. Patent & Trademark Office practice.

Clients trust Ms. Martini with their most pressing legal challenges, both within and beyond the IP space. Her experience extends to accounting liability, employment matters, trade secrets, regulatory issues, investor disputes, commercial litigation, real estate and financial transactions and corporate restructurings. She regularly leads cross-office, cross-disciplinary client service teams, including for bet-the-company engagements.

At her prior firm, Ms. Martini served as the global chair of the firm’s trademark practice, co-national hiring partner, as well as a co-leader on its Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee and Gender Diversity Committee. At another global law firm where she practiced for nearly 25 years, she held key leadership roles, including National Hiring Partner-Associate Recruiting, membership on the Executive and Policy Committees and chair of the Chicago Intellectual Property Practice.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND MEDIA

Ms. Martini co-hosts the WGN Radio show Legal Face-Off, one of the nation’s premier legal programs. She also hosts and produces the legal podcast Paradigm Shift, exploring the business context driving the legal profession and business landscape. Ms. Martini is also the co-author of two recent best-selling books, “Change Yourself” and “Change Your Business," which discuss cutting-edge, mission-critical business of law topics and provide practical wisdom and how-to strategies for students, junior attorneys, seasoned lawyers, and senior law firm and organizational leadership. For many years, she has written the column "Inside Out" for Chicago Lawyer magazine, examining the business of law from in-house and private practice perspectives.

A multimedia journalist and legal commentator, Ms. Martini has contributed to Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, WGN Radio, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Corporate Counsel, Law360, National Law Journal, Inside Counsel magazine, Little PINK Book, Chicago Lawyer magazine, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and World Trademark Review. She speaks frequently on business of law issues and trends impacting legal and business landscapes.

In addition to the roles and recognitions mentioned above, Ms. Martini has served on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Chapter of the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law, and is currently a member of the prestigious Richard Linn Inn of Court. For many years, she has acted as her prior firms’ liaison to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Chicago chapter, where she has played a critical role in furthering diversity- and mentor-related goals and programming. Since 2023, Ms. Martini has served as a special advisor and then a Commissioner to the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Women in the Profession. In the role, Ms. Martini focuses on a number of initiatives, including co-leading the Commission’s subcommittees that lead the Margaret Brent Awards and the “Men in the Mix” Initiative, all in furtherance of the Commission’s goal to secure women’s full and equal participation in the ABA, the profession and the justice system.

Ms. Martini has also served on the Board of Directors of the Better Government Association and the University of Illinois Campus Alumni Advisory Board. Additionally, she was a member of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms and sat on its executive board of directors. Ms. Martini was the Co-Founder of Hispanic Majority, a political action committee dedicated to supporting the next generation of Latino leadership. 

• Advisory Board of Directors, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

• Intellectual Trademark Association (INTA), Building Bridges Committee

• Commissioner and Special Advisor, ABA Commission on Women in the Profession

• The American Bar Foundation

• American Bar Association

• Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois

• Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago

• Chicago Bar Association

• Illinois State Bar Association

• International Trademark Association

• Co-Founder and Executive Board of Directors. Hispanic Majority

• Chicago Committee on Women’s Initiatives in Law

• Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

• Alumni advisor, Northwestern University School of Law, Alumni Advisor Program

• Board of Directors, Better Government Associate

• University of Illinois at Chicago, B.S., Industrial Engineering, 1991

• Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, J.D., 1994