Raised by her grandmother and godmother in a housing project in St. Louis, Areva Martin saw the immense economic challenges that her family and many in her community faced.

She experienced two different worlds in St. Louis when she went to high school in an affluent neighborhood — and it inspired her to help someday her community achieve more.

What You Need To Know

  • In in a new episode of "LA Stories," Martin discusses her law firm dedicated to serving marginalized communities in Los Angeles

  • Driven by her personal experiences and a deep desire to help others, Martin established her own law firm dedicated to serving marginalized communities in Los Angeles

  • She went on to start the Special Needs Network, which provides vital legal aid and other essential services to families of those  with autism and other developmental disabilities

  • Martin felt called to duty when fires devastated the Altadena area, displacing many Black and Hispanic homeowners

With the encouragement of the women in her life, Martin earned top honors in school and eventually graduated from Harvard Law School.

After working a high-paying job as a lawyer in New York City, she left that job behind to move to Los Angeles and help people in communities like the one she was raised in.

“I felt like I had a special connection to everyday people and that I would be better served in my career and I could better serve and give back,” she said, “And I never looked back. I get to represent people that I care about. I get to change lives.”

In the latest episode of "LA Stories with Giselle Fernandez," Martin discusses her law firm dedicated to serving marginalized communities in Los Angeles. She was driven by her personal experiences and a deep desire to help others.

When her son Marty was diagnosed with autism, she noticed a lack of understanding and education among parents in marginalized communities.

She went on to start the Special Needs Network, which provides vital legal aid and other essential services to families of those with autism and other developmental disabilities, empowering them to advocate for their loved one’s rights.

For Martin, the chance to help people — whether it’s pursuing disability rights, fighting for racial and gender equality, or social justice — is the best way to honor those who have helped her get to where she is today and the civil rights icons who paved the way.

“Lives were given up, sacrificed for us to be where we are today,” she said. “There are those like myself who are fighting hard to ensure that that history remains vibrant and that we are teaching it to current generations, Gen Z, young people, making sure that they understand the shoulders that they stand on.”

Martin felt called to this duty when the wildfires devastated the Altadena area, displacing many Black and Hispanic homeowners.

She was on the front lines, using her firm to help those affected understand their rights in these trying times.

She shares that while there is not yet a complete understanding of what happened. She has heard accusations of disproportionate emergency response times to the Black and Hispanic communities.

To Martin, this is not a coincidence — and she has vowed to continue her fight for those families, driven by a deep sense of justice and a commitment to equal rights, even in difficult times.

“If I didn’t believe it, I couldn’t wake up every morning and do the work that I do, represent the families that I represent, speak out in the way that I speak out,” she said. “I have to remain hopeful, even when it appears to be darker than I think any of us could have ever expected.”