Carmina Mares (LAW '01)

Degree: LL.M. in U.S. and Global Legal Studies

Graduation Year: 2001

Current occupation: Business litigation attorney for Jones Day

Company/organization website: www.jonesday.com

What are some of your achievements?
Mares was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. (1994-1995) and received the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center Outstanding Student Services Award (2001) from CWRU law school.

Any advice for future CWRU alumni?
For law students, avoid business litigation in general. Choose, instead, intellectual property litigation. I regret not having a technical background to be able to practice IP law.

What does being a Case Western Reserve University alumna mean to you?
It means the world to me. At CWRU I mentor JD and foreign LL.M. students, I serve on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and I volunteer to participate in various mock competitions for the LL.M. programs. I also serve on the School of Medicine's Skin Cancer Research Advisory Council. So, to me, being an alumna of CWRU means, primarily, volunteering a lot for CWRU! I have many friends among my former professors, with many of whom I remain in close contact, both professionally and personally.

What did you do immediately after graduation?
A summer internship with the global law firm of Squire, Sanders and Dempsey LLP in Cleveland.

Where do you live and how do you like living there?
I live in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in a 1929 house. I love everything about the neighborhood and its offerings—including the superb local public library.

A favorite website?
As a former broadcast journalist (I used to work in a local radio station during my law school years in Bucharest, Romania), I follow the news on BBC World News and Financial Times.