A Pioneer for Pepperdine Caruso School of Law: Pamela L. Hemminger (JD '76)

Pepperdine Caruso Law alumna and aribrator Pamela L. Hemminger is on the American Arbitration Association employment (Southern California), ERISA, and national class action panels with expertise in complex, class action, and individual cases. She was an employment law partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP for many years before retiring. She is a past chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association, a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a past board member of Dispute Resolution Services (1999 -2009) and a gubernatorial appointee to the California Law Revision Commission (1998-99; 2005-2010). Hemminger is also a well-known author and speaker, and has contributed to Employment Discrimination Law, California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation, and EEOC Litigation and Charge Resolution. She has been featured in The Best Lawyers in America and Top 50 Women Super Lawyers for Southern California.

Caruso School of Law Dean Emeritus Ron Phillips comments, “Pamela Hemminger played a unique role for the Law School during its Orange County days. We were attempting to get our graduates into some of the top Southern California law firms, and the Orange County office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher somewhat reluctantly agreed to take one of our evening division students as a full-time law clerk in order to determine whether they would consider hiring any of our graduates. I selected Pam Hemminger, one of our outstanding evening division students, who was a school teacher, to become a full-time law clerk for the firm. When they hired her, they told her that they would never offer her a position as an attorney when she graduated from law school, because they did not want to give her a false expectation. Pam is brilliant, and they soon discovered that, and she was hired as an attorney for the firm, and they have hired many more of ours. Once Gibson Dunn embraced our graduates, the other major LA law firms did the same. Pam opened the door for everyone who followed her. She became a most extraordinary Labor Law attorney. She was a very important pioneer for the Law School. She served on our Board of Visitors and was honored as the 1996 Law School Alumnus of the Year.”