Wanda Martinez

Wanda Martinez was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Queens. She moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1990, after graduating from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She worked for several years as a paralegal in a New York City law firm and for Chase Manhattan Bank. She came to the D.C. area to pursue her law degree at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and graduated in 1993. That same year she was admitted to the Maryland Bar.

Wanda began her legal career working for a private firm specializing in child abuse and neglect cases. For six years she worked as a sole practitioner, expanding her expertise in the areas of domestic relations, guardianship, adoption, bankruptcy, wills and contract law. In addition to her private practice, she also accepted court appointments from the District of Columbia Superior Court as a guardian ad litem to represent children, and provided legal counsel for parents/caretakers in cases of child abuse and neglect.

In July, 1999, Wanda was appointed by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office as Special Counsel to the Montgomery County Office of Child Support Enforcement (MCOCSE). This office is a division of the Department of Human Resources under the State of Maryland. In her capacity as Special Counsel, she used her skills daily to assist the clients of MCOCSE in navigating the complexities of the child support process. Furthermore, her bilingual skills have been and continue to be invaluable to our large and ever growing Latino population. Wanda’s outreach extends far beyond her office, as she was interviewed by Betty Valdes on the show “Que Pasa”, Montgomery County Cable Channel 16, by Alejandro Carrasco on Radio America, and by George Rosario on the radio program “Un Poco de Todo” (“A Little of Everything”.) As of October, 2012, Wanda is an associate attorney with the Rismiller Law Group, LLC, a firm whose practice is mainly in the field of Family Law, domestic violence, civil litigation, business and estate law, and criminal law.

Wanda has served and continues to serve the people of Montgomery County in many different ways. She serves on various committees, such as the Latino Progress Advisory Group, an organization of community citizens concerned about the issues affecting immigrants and working towards having more Latinos represented in significant positions throughout State government. She has been appointed as the President of the Law, Government, Public Safety and Administrative Cluster Advisory Board, within the Montgomery County Collaborative Board. In this position, she serves to advise, counsel and assist in the planning, development and evaluation of the Montgomery College and Montgomery County Public Schools effort to prepare students to pursue post secondary education or training opportunities and/or enter the workforce as productive members of society. In addition, Wanda has worked with residents of the county to prepare for the U. S. citizenship test through her volunteer work with the Montgomery County Refugee Citizen Preparation Program.

Professionally, Wanda is committed to her profession as an attorney. She has served on the Executive Board for the Juvenile Court Committee of Montgomery County as the Chair of the Legislative Subcommittee, where she tracked legislation that affected the juvenile division being transferred from the District to the Circuit Court system. She is a member in good standing of the Maryland and District of Columbia Bars, the United States District Court of Maryland, the United States District Court of the District of Columbia, the United States Supreme Court and the following specialty bars: the Bar Association of Montgomery County, where she is serving her second year on the Executive Committee; the Maryland and Montgomery County Women’s Bar Associations, and the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association. Wanda strongly supports the court translators which expertly help during court proceedings, and she is currently the only ex-oficio member of the Metropolitan Association of Court Interpreters and Translators (MACIT), served as co-chair of MACIT for 2010-2011, and is currently serving on the Board of Directors.