Ms. Cumare was born in Venezuela and as a child lived in upstate New York
and in Holland. She moved with her parents to California in 1965 and, except for six years in graduate study at Harvard
University, she has resided in the Pasadena area. She attended Ramona Convent School for Girls in Alhambra in her
junior and senior years, then earned a B.A. in humanities, magna cum laude, from the University of Southern California
in 1971. From 1971-77 Ms. Cumare studied English and American Language and Literature at Harvard University, being awarded
an A.M. in 1973 and a Ph.D. in 1977. The title of her dissertation is: Subversive Arts: Eighteenth Century
Theories of Fiction and Comedy from Hobbes to Fielding. While at Harvard she taught undergraduate classes in expository
writing, English and comparative literature.
After teaching both undergraduates and graduate students in the English
Departments at the University of Southern California and California State University at Los Angeles, Ms. Cumare spent a year
as co-host of a public radio arts and information program at KCSN-FM on a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
She studied law at the University of Southern California, and was awarded her J.D. in 1985. In law school she was a
member of the Southern California Law Review and was made a member of the Order of the Coif.
Ms. Cumare joined the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson as an associate
in 1985, and in 1992 she formed her own firm with partner David J. Hamilton, Hamilton & Cumare LLP. In July
2009, Ms. Cumare established herself as a sole practitioner, focussing on management-side employment law and related business
matters. She has successfully tried cases before juries, judges and in administrative proceedings. She is
especially adept at serving as counsel for individuals who are sued as co-defendants with their employers.
Active in the community, Ms. Cumare has served as President of the
Pasadena Bar Association (2003-04), President of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Business & Professional Committee (2002-03),
President of the Board of Holy Family Services Adoption and Foster Care (1995-97), and is currently a member of the board
of St. Francis Center for the homeless and of Mayfield Senior School. She is a member of the Cardinal's Awards
Dinner Committee, the Children's SEED ministry at St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church, and is Director of the Justice
& Peace Committee of the Western Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
Ms. Cumare is fluent in Dutch and has a reading knowledge of French, German and Spanish.
