Attorney Kathleen Martinez has long blonde hair and she loves pink dresses — anything pink, really, the brighter the better.
But even though she’s whip smart, she hasn’t always been respected by male colleagues — just like Elle Woods, the character famously played by Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde.
Now, Martinez is going viral on TikTok. One video, in which she shows off what a day in the life of “Elle Woods in real life” is like, has gotten over 4.5 million views.
In the clip, she takes her followers through a day at the office (which, fittingly, is pink) and as a married mom of two young boys.
Other wildly popular videos include rebuffs of former bosses as well as colleagues who have a problem with her fabulous wardrobe.
“I overheard the D.A. make fun of my ‘barbie’ outfit last week in court,” reads the text alongside one viral clip. “So I made sure to wear the brightest suit possible when I beat him today.”
Kathleen Martinez found an immediate soulmate in Elle Woods when the movie debuted in 2001. “I was maybe 10, 12 years old,” Martinez, now 31, said. “I love that movie, and I always loved pink, I always loved fashion.”
“I knew since I was a little kid that I wanted to be extraordinary,” says the Dallas lawyer, who started dressing in pink in reaction to male attorneys who told her to dress “conservatively.”
“I wanted to do something that had an impact on this world and my community,” adds Martinez, who now has 30 pink suits. “I loved that she could embrace both, that I didn’t have to grow up to fit in some kind of stereotype.”
Martinez’s TikTok videos are witty, outspoken, and downright funny.
One, about her first job as a lawyer, details how her boss fired her after she refused to make him coffee. But after she started her own law firm, she said he reached out for a job.
“I told him we need some help making the girls coffee,” she says in the TikTok, which has been viewed over 2 million times.
Kathleen Martinez, who founded her own immigration law firm in 2020, says her journey began in her home state of Oregon. Her mom, a healthcare executive, was always a role model.
