The Honorable Brian R. Martinotti, U.S.D.J., was appointed to serve as a United States District Judge for the District of New Jersey on July 11, 2016, by former President Barack Obama. Judge Martinotti graduated cum laude from Seton Hall University School of Law and from Fordham University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance. Prior to becoming a federal judge, Judge Martinotti served as a New Jersey Superior Court Judge from 2002 to 2016. He sat in both the Family Division and the Civil Division in Bergen County. While assigned to the Civil Division, he was one of the state’s three Multi-County Litigation judges handling mass torts and complex litigation. Over the course of his judicial tenure in state and federal court, Judge Martinotti has presided over thirteen Multi-District and Multi-County Litigations.

Judge Martinotti is the recipient of the 2020 Hon. Peter Ciolino Professionalism Award from the Bergen County Bar Association, the recipient of the Congressman Peter Rodino Medal of Excellence from Seton Hall School of Law, a 2018 Tri-County Scholarship Fund Honoree, a Fellow of the American Bar Association, and an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Judge Martinotti is a frequent lecturer for the American Bar Association, New Jersey State Bar Association Institute for Continuing Legal Education, New Jersey Association for Justice, and the Bergen County Bar Association. He has published in the Manual for Complex Litigation and the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal on the topic of Multi-District and Multi-County Litigation and has been recognized by the Fordham Law Review and JAMs for developing and implementing innovative methods of resolving complex litigation. He is also a member of the Judicial Advisory Board for the Institute for Complex Litigation and Mass Claims at the Emory University School of Law, and as well as a co-chair of the Federal/State subcommittee, which continues to promote state and federal cooperation, particularly in the complex litigation arena. He is a member of the RAND Kenneth R. Feinberg Center for Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation Advisory Board and was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to be on the Editorial Board for Federal Judicial Center’s Manual for Complex Litigation.

Prior to being appointed to the State bench, Judge Martinotti was in private practice with the law firm of Beattie Padovano, LLC, from 1987 until 2002, beginning as an associate and eventually being elevated to partner in 1994. While in private practice, Judge Martinotti was a distinguished and well-regarded litigator and Certified Civil Trial Attorney. He was a council member for the Borough of Cliffside Park and also served other towns in various roles as municipal public defender, prosecutor, and tax attorney. Judge Martinotti began his legal career by serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Roger M. Kahn of the New Jersey Tax Court.