Martin Stern serves as both General Counsel and Appellate Team Leader for Adams and Reese LLP. Martin is one of 15 lawyers in Louisiana certified as an appellate specialist by the Louisiana State Bar Association Board of Legal Specialization. Martin's appellate practice is deep and varied, ranging from representing an oil-and-gas company in the appeal of a $1 billion punitive damage award to representing a defendant sentenced to death, both of which resulted in grants of certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court. Martin has argued 14 times to the Louisiana Supreme Court as well as to all of the Louisiana state courts of appeal and the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In one of Martin’s most recent arguments to the Louisiana Supreme Court, he represented fellow Appellate Practice Specialists as amici in helping to win an important issue regarding the right to appeal. Amedee v. Aimbridge Hospitality LLC, 351 So.3d 321 (La. 2022). In another recent matter, Martin served as an expert witness in the field of appellate litigation, where his opinion was quoted at length in the court of appeal's decision. Henry v. Ahern, 335 So.3d 871 (La. App. 4 Cir. 2022). In addition to his appellate practice, Martin has a deep background in legal ethics. He has represented judges before the Louisiana State Judiciary Commission and lawyers before the Louisiana State Disciplinary Board, for which he formerly served as Hearing Committee Chair. Martin is also heavily involved in pro bono efforts. He is past director of both national and Louisiana Appleseed, non-profit organizations that attack injustice at its root cause—what The American Lawyer called "pro bono's new frontier." In 2016, Martin received the Louisiana State Bar Association's Catherine D. Kimball Award for a project culminating in the adoption of a rule allowing lawyers in Louisiana to earn CLE credit for pro bono representation. Martin is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Georgetown University Law Center.