Craig C. Martin serves as Chairman, Midwest and a member of the Executive Committee of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, an international law firm with more than 1,000 attorneys in 13 offices around the world. A leading national trial lawyer, his clients include major Chicago companies and some of the nation’s most influential families, and he regularly appears as lead counsel in trials and appeals in state and federal courts as well as in domestic and international arbitrations. Mr. Martin also counsels boards and board committees of public and private companies and law firms on a variety of sensitive and complicated matters, and conducts board and management-driven investigations involving various subjects domestically and internationally.
Mr. Martin serves on the boards of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the Crown Family Philanthropies, the Urban League of Chicago, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, World Business Chicago and the University of Chicago Law School Advisory Council. He is also a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the Economic Club of Chicago.
For nearly two decades, he was a member of the Corporate Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, including serving as secretary, vice-chairman and as chairman from 2011 to 2014. Mr. Martin remains a Trustee at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago. For nearly a decade, Mr. Martin served on the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness. He received the Judge Learned Hand Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee for his extraordinary professional accomplishments and dedication to philanthropic and civic endeavors.
Originally from Colorado, Mr. Martin received a JD from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He received his BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Martin regularly teaches Advanced Trial Advocacy at the Harvard Law School, and frequently lectures on crisis management at the Stanford Directors College.