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. In recent years, Ms. Cumare has expanded her practice to include representation
of non-profit organizations (except in tax matters). Ms. Cumare was voted by her peers a Pasadena Magazine Top Attorney
in 2010.
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 has served as a member of the Cardinal's Awards Dinner Committee, the Children's
SEED ministry at St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church, and was Councillor of the Justice & Peace Committee
of the Western Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem from 2007-2011. In 2010 she was
invested as a Dame Commander in the papal Order of St. Gregory the Great.
Ms. Cumare is fluent in Dutch and has a reading knowledge of French, German and Spanish.
