Catherine Meulemans ’85

It’s not too often that a 9th grader chooses to take a college course for credit, then aces the entire three-term series. But while she was a student at Ashland High School, Catherine Meulemans ’85, did just that. “My father, Dr. Bill Meulemans, was teaching political science at SOSC and I wanted to earn as many college credits as possible in high school, so it was logical for me to take that opportunity,” said Meulemans. Originally intending to leave the region and attend college in California, she chose to stay home and save money for her long-term goal of attending law school. Before high school graduation, she already had 18 credits at SOSC and a 4.0 GPA.

With the close proximity of Ashland High School across the street from SOSC, many local students don’t consider staying home, choosing instead to leave the Rogue Valley. “I had a great experience at SOSC and saved money by staying here in the valley,” said Meulemans. While on campus, she enjoyed her political science core courses but also enjoyed history courses, particularly those taught by Douglas Legg. “Mr. Legg was a brilliant professor and his courses on western civilization were fascinating to me. The way he made it interesting for his students, was inspiring,” she added. Additionally, she was a Robert Ruhl Scholarship Fellow, a journalism award tied to Robert Ruhl the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist with the Medford Mail Tribune, which helped to offset tuition. 

During her junior year, Meulemans applied for and earned a year-long exchange at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for her senior year. Though she never lived in student housing while at SOSC, she did live in campus housing at Amherst. While at Amherst, she earned an internship in Washington DC, lobbying on Capitol Hill for the Professional’s Coalition for Nuclear Arms Control, which comprised members of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Lawyers’ Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control and the Physicians for Social Responsibility. “I was 21 years old and lobbying on The Hill was an eye opener and enlightening for me in so many ways. It also made me yearn for a shot at attending law school,” she said. While at Amherst, she earned work study money as the Assistant Coordinator of National Student Exchange Program and graduated magna cum laude from SOSC in August of 1985.  

Being in DC offered a great opportunity to apply to the prestigious Georgetown University Law Center. She was accepted and finished in three and a-half years, eventually taking many of her courses in the evening because she worked full-time at Steptoe & Johnson as a law clerk during the day. She was a summer associate after her first year of law school at Stoel Rives in Portland and a summer associate at Pettit & Martin in San Francisco after her second year of law school. Two months after graduating from Georgetown, she took the bar exam in California, passed it, took a post-bar trip to Australia, and started working at Pettit & Martin in San Francisco

After only three years as a litigation attorney in San Francisco, she partnered with some big law attorneys and co-founded a multi-state boutique law firm, Senn Palumbo Meulemans LLP. The firm specialized in complex business litigation, real estate, and civil appeals and operated offices in San Francisco, Orange County, Reno and Las Vegas, for 15 years. 

Currently, Meulemans helps her clients resolve commercial and business disputes and serves as co-leader of the Utilities Team in the San Francisco office of Frost Brown Todd, an AmLaw 200 firm with offices across the United States. She has expertise assisting clients faced with a variety of lawsuits, including contractual disputes, complex tort claims, fraud, and employment claims. Some cases of note that she has litigated:

Meulemans helped a major international banking client succeed at both trial and appeal in a lawsuit that ultimately allowed a bad faith waste “exception” to California’s anti-deficiency statutes, establishing new case law that was widely praised and embraced by the California banking community.  

Meulemans conducted a high-profile investigation in Las Vegas, involving numerous City departmental heads, the Mayor and the City Council members, on behalf of the Office of the Nevada Attorney General. The case related to the Las Vegas City Council’s decision to allow a developer with close ties to the Mayor to build residential housing on land adjacent to a sewage treatment facility. The highly public investigation culminated in the release of a comprehensive 165-page report that was widely praised in the Las Vegas press.  

Meulemans managed the litigation portfolio for a $4 billion privately held international real estate brokerage franchise, including real estate and franchise disputes and vicarious liability actions brought before various courts within California. She worked with a client to develop effective strategies for case resolution that enabled the client to settle 100% of litigation in advance of trial. 

“SOSC gave me the confidence to step into new places, take risks, and keep growing. It gave me community, perspective, and a strong sense of who I was becoming. SOSC wasn’t just where I graduated from college – it’s the place where I found my footing and started the path I’m still on today.”

Learn more: Frost Brown Todd Attorneys