Bakersfield Born And Built For This Community: Chain | Cohn | Clark Welcomes New Associate Attorney Gaby Martinez

She grew up here. She built a career here. She went to law school here. And now she is fighting for the people of Kern County from inside one of its longest-standing law firms.

The Law Office of Chain | Cohn | Clark is proud to welcome Adrianna Gabriela “Gaby” Martinez as an associate attorney in the firm’s Personal Injury Department. A Bakersfield native in the fullest sense of the word, Martinez brings a background that combines legal training, a decade of real estate experience, community roots, and a bilingual approach to client advocacy that reflects exactly the kind of attorney this community needs.

“Gaby represents everything we look for when we bring someone onto this team,” said firm managing partner Matt Clark. “She knows this city. She knows these families. She has spent her entire career understanding how legal and financial decisions affect real people over the long term, and she is going to be a tremendous advocate for our clients.”

A Bakersfield Story

Gaby Martinez’s path to law is the kind of story that Kern County tends to produce: built on hard work, multiple careers, and a willingness to start something new when the moment is right.

She was born and raised in Bakersfield, attending Ridgeview High School before going on to Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield. In 2014, she became a licensed real estate agent and built a successful practice throughout Kern County, working with families and individuals navigating some of the most significant financial decisions of their lives.

Even as her real estate business grew, the idea of becoming a lawyer stayed with her. She enrolled at Kern County College of Law, earning both her master’s degree and her Juris Doctor before being admitted to the State Bar of California in 2024. That timeline, a full decade of real estate work running alongside law school, reflects a kind of discipline and commitment that does not go unnoticed.

Before joining Chain | Cohn | Clark, Martinez practiced at Coleman and Horowitt, LLP, where she represented clients across family law, probate, trust administration, estate planning, real estate, and civil litigation matters, guiding them from intake through resolution. The breadth of that experience, combined with her years in real estate, gave her a working knowledge of how legal decisions ripple outward into families’ financial and personal lives long after a case is closed.

“I have always been drawn to work that is about people,” Martinez said. “In real estate, you are helping someone through one of the biggest decisions of their life. In law, it is the same thing, but often at a moment of real crisis. That is where I want to be.”

What She Brings to Personal Injury

Personal injury law places an attorney inside some of the most difficult moments a family can face. A serious car accident, a workplace injury, the death of a loved one caused by someone else’s negligence, these are not abstract legal problems. They are events that restructure a family’s entire life, and the attorney handling the case has to understand that weight.

Martinez’s background equips her for exactly that. Her years in real estate taught her to read the long-term picture, to understand that what happens in a legal matter today shapes a family’s financial and practical reality for years to come. Her litigation experience at Coleman and Horowitt gave her an understanding of how cases are built from the ground up, how clients are guided through processes they have never encountered before, and how to communicate clearly at every stage.

Her bilingual fluency in English and Spanish adds a dimension that is particularly meaningful in Kern County, where a significant portion of the community’s Spanish-speaking residents have historically faced barriers when seeking legal representation. Navigating the legal system for the first time is disorienting for anyone. Navigating it in a second language, without an attorney who can communicate directly and clearly, compounds that challenge in ways that can affect both the client’s experience and the outcome of their case.

“One of the things I care most about is making sure every client feels heard,” Martinez said. “That starts with being able to speak their language, literally. But it also means taking the time to explain what is happening, what to expect, and what their rights are. No one should feel lost in their own case.”

Roots That Run Deep

What distinguishes Martinez is not only her professional background but the depth of her connection to the community she serves. She and her husband, whose family owns and operates Tony’s Pizza locations throughout Kern County, are raising two sons in Bakersfield. The firm she works for has served this community for nearly 100 years. The clients she represents are her neighbors.

That connection is not incidental to the work. It shapes how cases are handled, how clients are treated, and what it means to the attorney sitting across the table to actually win. For Martinez, a successful outcome for a client is not an abstraction. It is a family in her community getting the resources they need to move forward after something that should never have happened to them.

Outside the office, Martinez has been active in the community through Bakersfield Angels, serving as a mentor to foster youth, a role that reflects the same commitment to showing up for people who need support that she brings to her legal practice.

“Kern County is home,” she said. “I went to school here, built my career here, and I am raising my family here. When I am representing a client who was hurt on one of our streets or highways, I am not just doing a job. I am representing someone from my community. That matters to me every single day.”

A Firm Built for This Moment

Martinez’s arrival at Chain | Cohn | Clark adds to a team that has long prioritized community-rooted advocacy and bilingual access. Partner Beatriz Trejo has led the firm’s Spanish-language client services for years, with a particular focus on workers’ compensation and personal injury cases in Kern County’s Latino community. Associate Juan Garza, a bilingual Kern County native who came to law after working as a private investigator, brings his own deep community ties to the team. Martinez’s addition deepens that bench further.

The firm’s Five C’s, Compassion, Character, Competence, Communication, and Customer Experience, are not simply values posted on a wall. They are the standard against which every client interaction is measured, from the first phone call to the final resolution. Martinez’s background, her decade in real estate, her litigation training, her community involvement, and her commitment to clear and honest communication in both English and Spanish, reflect each of those values in practice.

“I came to Chain | Cohn | Clark because of what this firm stands for,” Martinez said. “Nearly 100 years of showing up for this community. A team that genuinely cares about the people they represent. That is the kind of attorney I want to be, and this is the right place to do it.”

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If you or someone you know is injured in an accident at the fault of someone else, or injured on the job no matter whose fault it is, contact the attorneys at Chain | Cohn | Clark by calling (661) 323-4000, or fill out a free consultation form, text, or chat with us at chainlaw.com.