Principal
Professional Liability
Phone: 215-587-1055
Fax: 215-587-1444
mschumaker@postschell.com
Defends healthcare systems, hospitals, behavioral health facilities, physicians, therapists, nurses, dentists, and other medical professionals in complex medical negligence cases involving catastrophic injuries and high financial exposure.
Melinda A. Schumaker is a Principal in the Philadelphia office of Post & Schell and is a member of the firm's Professional Liability Department. For more than 15 years, Ms. Schumaker has devoted her practice exclusively to defending health systems, hospitals, behavioral health facilities, physicians, therapists, nurses, dentists, and other medical professionals in medical malpractice cases.
Ms. Schumaker has been involved in numerous high-exposure cases involving catastrophic injuries. Her cases routinely involve alleged misdiagnoses, delayed diagnoses, negligent treatment, surgical malpractice, birth injuries, decubitus ulcers, and falls, among others. She has substantial experience litigating in Philadelphia County and represents clients throughout the state court system of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
In addition, Ms. Schumaker is a trusted advisor dedicated to preventing additional medical malpractice lawsuits. Her consulting practice includes the pre-litigation handling of potential medical malpractice claims and claims reduction through the identification and mitigation of liability risk and the enhancement of patient safety and quality of care. She guides and assists clients in healthcare legal matters including those that involve presentations as to proactive documentation, education as to the enhancement of patients’ satisfaction, internal investigations, and peer review issues.
Ms. Schumaker has been named by her peers as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer Rising Star in the category of Medical Malpractice Defense. For information about these selections and an overview of common third-party publications, rankings, and list methodologies, click here.
Prior to joining Post & Schell in February 2008, Ms. Schumaker practiced in the Health Care Litigation and Risk Management Department of a major mid-Atlantic law firm. In that position, Ms. Schumaker served as a litigator assisting in the defense of medical malpractice cases and as a risk management team member. This latter aspect of her practice involved mitigating liability risk exposure by identifying and implementing early intervention strategies, policies and training, and diagnostic clinical risk tools.
From September 2005 to September 2006, Ms. Schumaker served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable James P. Cullen of the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Judge Cullen presided over medical professional liability cases, giving Ms. Schumaker the unique opportunity to participate in these matters from the court’s vantage point and to learn the judicial perspective on key legal issues.
