CRAIG C. MARTIN

CRAIG C. Martin serves as chairman, Midwest and as a member of the Executive Committee of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in Chicago.

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. 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.

Martin frequently speaks and writes on a variety of business and legal topics. Among his recognitions, he is listed in Chicago Magazine’s Power 100, a list of the city’s most powerful people, and Crain’s Chicago Business Who’s Who in Chicago civic, professional and cultural leaders. He is highly ranked in Chambers Global (2022) and Chambers USA (2022). Martin has appeared in The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week column for his courtroom successes, and has been featured in The National Law Journal’s Masters of the Courtroom Winning Litigators special report honoring trial lawyers for their victories in high-stakes matters.

Martin teaches trial advocacy at Harvard Law School and frequently presents at the Stanford Directors’ College on a number of legal topics, including crisis management.

Martin serves on the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees, as well as 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 as well as 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.

Martin received a JD from Harvard Law School in 1988. While there, he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He received his BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame.

Married with two children, Martin traces his Irish ancestry four generations ago to Co. Kilkenny.