Distinguished Achievement Honorees

Michael Browde

For 30 years, Professor Michael Browdehas served the UNM School of Law and the New Mexico legal community selflessly and without agenda. He has taught nearly every required course, contributed an expertise in Constitutional Law and served as the faculty adviser to the New Mexico Law Review.

Browde has written widely on a number of areas of New Mexico law and has been an active consultant to the Legislative Council Service on constitutional matters and governmental ethics. He has served as legal counsel to a number of legislative committees and task forces, including service as legal counsel to New Mexico's Constitutional Revision Commission. During the last three decennials, he served as special counsel to the Legislature on redistricting matters.

He has written more than 200 appellate briefs on a broad range of issues affecting the development of New Mexico law and also has been co-counsel with Jim Ellis and other colleagues in numerous briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Browde earned his J.D. in 1968 from the Georgetown University Law Center, after which he clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Luther Youngdahl in Washington, D.C. A year later, he arrived in Albuquerque as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow to help train law school graduates at the Legal Aid Society of Albuquerque. He stayed on as a staff attorney at Legal Aid and served as director for seven years before joining the UNM law faculty in 1977. In December, he will retire from the faculty, but will remain active in the law school community.

Walter Martinez (posthumously)

Walter K. Martinez distinguished himself during 18 years of service in the New Mexico State Legislature. A lawyer from Grants, he was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 1966. In 1971 he was elected Speaker, a post he held for seven years.

Martinez was born in Tierra Amarilla and was a 1955 graduate of the UNM School of Law. He made his home in Grants, where he was a general practitioner.

In the Legislature, he was known for his intellect, fair-mindedness and judicious leadership. As the leader of the Mama Lucy Gang, a group of liberal Democratic lawmakers, he was instrumental in equalizing funding for school districts statewide. His foresight led to the development of the state's severance tax permanent fund, which was designed to safeguard state income from the fluctuations of the minerals industries. He introduced the bill that resulted in the creation of Cibola County, of which Grants is the county seat, and he also served as a mentor for young legislators.

Martinez left the Legislature in 1984 after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and he died two years later at the age of 55.

In 2001, an enclosed walkway that connects the Capitol and a new Capitol Annex was dedicated in his name, fittingly honoring his ability to move easily between parties, cultures and ideas.

Randi McGinn

For Randi McGinn, a law degree was going to make it easier to publish her poetry and nonfiction articles. A former newspaper reporter, when she entered the University of New Mexico School of Law she was more interested in serving the public through writing than practicing law. But sometime during the next few years, she discovered how she could meet those same goals as a trial lawyer.

McGinn wanted to concentrate on plaintiff's civil work and criminal defense, but after earning her J.D. in 1980, she worked at the District Attorney's Office and for an insurance defense firm. Finding out as much as she could about what her opposition would do seemed like the best way to prepare for her own practice.

By the time she opened her own law office in 1985, McGinn already loved the courtroom and ever since has approached every case as if it were going to trial. If a case is settled, she figures her preparation only strengthens her client's position.. She can claim many victories in the courtroom, but her career highpoint remains the birth of her daughter, Heather, the day before the three-day Bar Exam. She sat on a pile of pillows and during the breaks, her mother would bring Heather by for breastfeeding.

She was the first lawyer to use a Powerpoint presentation in a New Mexico courtroom and regularly travels around the country lecturing on trial skills, use of Powerpoint and other creative exhibits in court. She has represented clients in more than 100 jury trials in both state and federal courts and in 2005 received the Justice Mary Walters Award from the UNM Women's Law Caucus.

Andrew Schultz

Andy Schultz began his legal career at the top and has continued to distinguish himself through a varied practice as a lawyer and teacher.

After graduating first in the Class of 1984 at the University of New Mexico School of Law, he clerked for U.S. Appeals Court Judge Alvin Rubin, and then went on to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White. Andy remains the only UNM law graduate to clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Andy returned home in 1986 and joined Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb. Through the years, he has displayed outstanding analytical skills in a diverse practice that includes everything from medical malpractice cases, complex commercial litigation, class actions and civil rights work.

Beyond his work as a litigator, Andy continually has shared his ever-changing expertise with the UNM School of Law, both as a visiting and adjunct professor. He has taught numerous seminars and other courses and serves as a frequent lecturer at the law school.  He has been a member of the UNM School of Law Alumni Board of Directors since 1986, and served two terms as president.

If he weren't practicing law, Andy, a movie fanatic, would be a film critic.  He has combined his love for movies with his legal career by frequently lecturing about law and film both at the law school and around the country.