Lawyer in 9/11 Case Placed on Leave

Carla J. Martin, a Transportation Security Administration lawyer, leaves the federal courthouse in Alexandria on Tuesday. (Caleb Jones - AP)

Martin came to the law by a circuitous route.

The second-oldest of four children and the only girl born to the late Charles Martin and his wife, Jean, Martin spent her early childhood in Arlington. Charles Martin was a lawyer for the Labor Department, according to her mother, Jean Martin Lay. Carla Martin was 9 when her father decided to go into private practice and moved his family back to his home town of Oneida, Tenn., outside Knoxville.

She attended her father's alma mater, the University of Tennessee, where she studied German and history, Lay said; she yearned to see the world and, after graduating, joined World Airways as a flight attendant.

In the mid-1980s, as the airline was mired in financial difficulties, Martin was living in Hawaii pondering her future. At the encouragement of a friend, Lay said, Martin enrolled at American University's Washington College of Law. In November 1987, a year and a half before she graduated, Martin started work as a paralegal at the FAA.

She received her degree in 1989 and the next year joined the bar in Pennsylvania, a state where she never lived. Lawyers for federal agencies can be licensed in any state, but some attorneys consider Pennsylvania's bar exam to be among the least difficult.

First at the FAA and then, beginning in 2002 at the new TSA, Martin was classified as a general trial attorney. But many lawyers who know her say they do not recall her ever trying a case.

Martin occupied a special niche in an age of terrorism, as typified by her participation in a trial against Pan American World Airways brought by families of passengers who died when a bomb exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. She would advise the judge about when the courtroom should be cleared.

"When we took depositions, Carla would identify those parts that involved aviation security and should not be public," said James Kreindler, who represented the families.

Martin's mother said her daughter was floored by the accusations about her conduct in a job she loves.

"She's not too well," Lay said. "It's been devastating to her."

Staff writers Karin Brulliard and Leef Smith and staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.