CLINICAL EXTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT

We are proud to announce that this year, Moira Brennan ’05, Pari Granum ’09, and Nicole G. Wells ’10 have all made partner at Dummit, Buchholz, Trapp, a firm dedicated to defending hospitals, doctors, and healthcare workers in claims of alleged medical malpractice. We sat down with them to discuss how their individual career paths ultimately brought them together to form a familial partnership and cohesive leadership team.

First of all, congratulations on making partner! I’d like to take you back to the beginning a bit and ask you to reflect on your California Western education and how that prepared you for your journey here.

Moira Brennan

I always knew I wanted to work in health care law. At California Western, I was able to make Health Law the emphasis in my studies, which gave me the background knowledge I needed. I was able to gain practical experience through the Health Law Society program; and that experience in the field was tremendously helpful. Also, the emphasis at California Western is always on inclusion, diversity, treating people with respect, and openness to different cultures. And those values are essential working in the healthcare law. We have the same culture in our firm, where the emphasis is on diversity of people, voices and opinions. I was also helped by the business development classes I took, which taught me how to be a leader and how to bring the best out of people.

Pari Grunam

Among the many things that helped contribute to my legal development at California Western, I believe the school’s focus on diversity and mentorship really helped prepare me for my journey as a practicing lawyer today. My parents moved to the United States from Iran during the revolution in the 70’s and we had no lawyers or law enforcement professionals in our family. I was really thankful and fortunate to receive a diversity scholarship to attend California Western. I also had the opportunity to join the Middle Eastern Law Students Association, which put me in contact with other first generation Persian American students paving their legal paths here in the United States, often for the first time in their families. I was also able to obtain a position with a well-known civil rights attorney through the school’s internship program, which was very helpful in terms of learning basic litigation practices before graduating law school.