Catherine O’Brien Crum, a Trial Lawyer and Shareholder at Nixon Shefrin Ogburn Drew P.C., has 29 years of legal practice experience, and as a registered nurse at Tufts New England Medical Center, the Harvard Affiliated Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Washington D.C. and Colorado Hospitals. She defends hospitals, physicians, nurses, long term health care facilities, and allied health care professionals.  Since 1988, Catherine has worked as a trial attorney specializing in medical malpractice, health and hospital law, correctional health care, and civil rights law defense. Her experience includes being in house counsel for Boston City Hospital, and representing hospitals, physicians, dentists, allied healthcare providers, long term health care facilities, and clinics in medical negligence cases and hospital credentialing matters. She is a former prosecutor for the City of Boston Health Department and defends physicians, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals before the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners, the Board of Nursing and other Agencies.  She has particular expertise defending catastrophic injury cases at trial. She has successfully tried birth injury cases as lead counsel, and has obtained dismissal without payment for over 80 cases. Catherine is a frequent lecturer and presenter at Hospitals and Health Care Facilities on Risk Management matters and a recent Faculty Member for NITA at the trial skills training course.

Practice Areas

•  Medical and Hospital Malpractice Defense
• Correctional Health Care Defense
• Medical Malpractice Defense-Physicians, Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Practitioners
• Professional Licensing and Discipline, Regulatory Laws, Peer Review and Quality Assurance
• Long Term Health Care Defense

Articles and Presentations

•  Why Nurses Get Sued, Rocky Mountain Perianesthesia Nurses Association, October 2016
• Pathways to Justice: Improving advocacy for the intellectual and developmentally disabled in the criminal justice system; Arc, October 2015
• Trial Trends, Colorado Healthcare Associated Risk Managers Annual Conference, September 2015
• Mock Trial for Physicians, Copic Insurance Company, August 2015
• Trends in Litigation, CPAA, May 2015
• Fundamentals of Cross Examination of Expert, Colorado Defense Lawyers Association, April 2015
• Mock Trial Judge for Law Students, University of Colorado, March 2015
• Documentation and Risk Management, SCLHS Good Samaritan Medical Center, January 2015
• Civil Rights, Deliberate Indifference and Medical Malpractice Liability Providers in the Correctional Health System, Adams County Detention Center, August 2014
• Risk Management and Electronic Documentation, SCLHS Lutheran Hospital, August 2014
• Current Trends in Civil Rights Litigation and Correctional Health Care, Corizon Health, May 2014
• Mock Trial, Medical Malpractice, Copic Insurance Company, July 2013
• Anatomy of a Medical Negligence Claim: Documentation and Medical Malpractice Claims/Mock Trial, SCLHS Good Samaritan Medical Center, June 2013
• Legal Forum RE Anatomy of Medical Malpractice Claim, Grand Junction Regional ETAC, March 2013
• Mock Trial-Nursing Documentation, SCLHS Good Samaritan Medical Center, September 2012
• Building Trial Skills: Rocky Mountain, National Institute for Trial Advocacy Faculty Member, April 2012
• Mock Trial: OB Nursing Documentation, SCLHS St. Joseph Hospital, June 2011
• Mock Trial: OB Nursing Documentation, SCLHS Good Samaritan Medical Center, September 2011
• Mock Trial and Documentation, CHC Regional Leadership Conference, September 2010
• Medical Malpractice and Documentation Mock Trial, CHARM Colorado Healthcare Associated Risk Managers, May 2010
• Anatomy of a Medical Negligence Claim: House Resident Physicians, SCLHS, July 2009

Professional and Community Activities

•  Member, American Bar Association
• Member Colorado Bar Association
• Member, Denver Bar Association
• Member, Colorado Defense Lawyers’ Association and Defense Research Institute
• Member, Catholic Lawyers’ Guild
• Member, CHARM Colorado Healthcare Associated Risk Managers
• Member, Long-Term Health Care Risk Forum
• Member, ASHRM American Society for Health Care Risk Management
• University of Denver Law Student Mentor Program, 2015
• Member, Board of Directors, ARC, Douglas and Arapahoe Counties, 2015 to present

Admissions

• Colorado
• Massachusetts
• Nebraska
• Wyoming
• S. District Court, District of Colorado
• S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Education and Honors

• J.D., New England School of Law, 1988, Dean’s list 1985 – 1988
• B.S.N., University of Massachusetts, 1984
• A.D., Science and Nursing, Catherine Laboure’ School of Nursing, 1975
• Registration In Nursing, R.N., Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1975, Washington D.C. 1988, Colorado 1992
• AV^® Preeminent^™ Peer Review Rated (the highest rating available), by Martindale-Hubbell
• Colorado Super Lawyers^®, 2007-2017
• Special Achievement Award, United States Department of Labor, April 17, 1989