Helen Martinez is an attorney and serial entrepreneur who joined Downs Aaron in 2025. Helen leverages her technical expertise, vast experience and extensive professional network to deliver the best possible result for her partners and clients. Her areas of expertise include corporate law, M&A, real estate, payments processing and fintech. Helen is a trusted advisor for all stages of business from start-up to exit and adds value in all areas from deal structuring, contract negotiation and due diligence, to visioning, marketing, and strategic branding.
Prior to joining Downs Aaron, Helen was General Counsel of Stax Payments, one of the fastest growing fintech companies in the United States. During Helen’s tenure at Stax, the company reached “unicorn” status, with a valuation of over $1 billion. Prior to her role at Stax, Helen built and exited a SaaS-based tech company focused on the financial due diligence sector, which she sold to a public financial services firm in New York in late 2014.
Helen Martinez is also the owner and President of Black Elk, Group, LLC, (est. 2017), a commercial real estate development, investment and consulting firm located in Downtown Orlando. Black Elk Group, LLC has been integrally involved in the development of over $250M in real estate projects in Downtown Orlando, including the 68-acre public/private partnership, Creative Village, which is valued at over $1.5 billion in development activity. Helen also served as Corporate Counsel for CNL Capital Markets Corp. and Corporate Capital Trust, where she oversaw all selling syndicate and SEC/FINRA related matters for several multi-billion-dollar offerings. Helen was also a member of the litigation and real estate practice groups at Greenberg Traurig, P.A.