Catherine Chillemi is a Partner at Dell & Dean, PLLC, where she represents plaintiffs in medical malpractice and other personal injury actions. She brings a distinctive 360-degree perspective to litigation, drawing upon extensive experience in clinical nursing, health care quality and risk management, medical malpractice defense, and plaintiffs’ personal injury litigation.
Before joining Dell & Dean, Ms. Chillemi was a partner at a prominent plaintiffs’ personal injury law firm, where she represented individuals injured as a result of medical malpractice and negligence. Prior to that, she operated her own personal injury practice for approximately five years. Earlier in her legal career, she represented health care providers in medical malpractice defense matters. This broad range of experience provides her with a unique understanding of medical malpractice cases from the perspectives of the patient, health care provider, plaintiff, and defense.
Ms. Chillemi graduated with honors from Lake Superior State University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She began her career in emergency and critical care nursing and later worked as a travel nurse in New York City, practicing at multiple metropolitan trauma centers over a six-year period. Her clinical and health care leadership experience also includes serving as a heart transplant coordinator at a major New York City hospital and as Vice President of Quality, Patient Safety, and Risk Management for a large health care system.
Ms. Chillemi earned her Juris Doctor from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. During law school, she interned for a Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice and completed a criminal law externship with the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society. She also studied abroad in Vietnam, focusing on international intellectual property and international criminal law, and had the opportunity to observe court proceedings arising from the Pol Pot regime.
Ms. Chillemi is a multiple recipient of CALI Excellence for the Future Awards and received Touro’s Pro Bono Service Award in recognition of 100 hours of service with the Nassau and Suffolk County Legal Aid Societies.
Her combined background in nursing, health care administration, risk management, medical malpractice defense, and plaintiffs’ advocacy allows Ms. Chillemi to evaluate complex medical malpractice cases from both the clinical and legal perspectives and to understand the medical issues at the center of each client’s case.
