Martha Belcher

Ms. Belcher served as the first President and Chairman of the Board following the death of the Fellowship’s Founder, Francesca Turner, in 1999.  Many years prior to her death, Ms. Turner had selected Ms. Belcher to serve as Ms. Turner’s replacement in the Fellowship organization.  Ms. Belcher was the first Fellow invited to join the Fellowship’s Board of Directors, where she has served from 1985 to the present.  Ms. Belcher worked closely with the Founder on the infrastructure of the Fellowship program and served on the Fellowship’s Screening, Selection, and Renewal Committees.  Ms. Belcher kept the Fellowship alive, operational, and flourishing during the critical years following the Founder’s death.  Ms. Belcher served as the President and Chairman of the Board of the Fellowship from 1999 to 2008.  Ms. Belcher currently serves as the Chairman Emirita and Chairman of the Selection Committee for all three law schools.

Outside the Fellowship, Ms. Belcher served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary of Compu-Link Corporation, dba Celink (2017 to 2022).  At Celink, Ms. Belcher built a 12-person in-house legal team from the ground up.  Other in-house positions held by Ms. Belcher include acting as the Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel for Consumer Finance and Banking at CIT Bank, N.A. (2015 to 2017), the Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of OneWest Bank, N.A. (2009 to 2015), and the Senior Vice President and Secondary Marketing General Counsel at IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB (2007 to 2008).  Ms. Belcher also worked at Fannie Mae as its Regional Counsel (Vice President and Deputy General Counsel) in Pasadena, California (1996 to 2007).

Ms. Belcher’s earlier career was spent as a Partner at Arnold & Porter (1991 to 1996), Of Counsel and an Associate at McKenna & Fitting (1985 to 1991), and as an Associate at Epport, Kaseff & Mirman (now Epport, Richman & Robbins) (1983 to 1985).

Ms. Belcher is a 1983 Fellow from University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.