Mary Ellen Gram

Mary E. Gram is a Senior Attorney at the Temecula Valley office of Messina & Hankin LLP. Ms. Gram is an experienced appellate and trial attorney specializing in commercial litigation matters in both federal and state court. She has litigated a wide variety of business disputes from inception through appeal, with expertise in insurance-related litigation, various business torts, aviation and products liability matters, and professional malpractice. She has also acted as trial and appellate counsel in trust disputes and cases of alleged elder abuse, as well as personal injury and wrongful death matters.

In recent years Ms. Gram’s practice has been primarily focused on appellate matters. In that capacity, she represented clients in several appellate cases involving matters of first impression, including a dispute regarding the interpretation of certain provisions of the Davis-Sterling Act governing the conduct of California homeowner’s associations boards of directors when holding elections, the application of comparative fault principles in actions involving professional negligence and a seminal case regarding the disqualification of counsel based on conflicts of interest.

For many years, prior to joining Messina & Hankin LLP, Ms. Gram was a member of the Business Trials Practice Group at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. While there, she was trial and appellate counsel in numerous complex multi-million dollar cases involving alleged fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, professional negligence of insurance brokers, lender liability, breaches of contract and alleged insurer bad faith. She has litigated on behalf of insurer clients, including Underwriters at Lloyds of London, which in one instance resulted in a victory for the defense in a jury trial that was selected as one of the top ten defense verdicts of the year by the California Daily Journal. Ms. Gram has also represented plaintiffs who were wrongfully denied insurance coverage, including prevailing at a jury trial on an insured’s behalf which resulted in a $10 million verdict.

Throughout the years Ms. Gram has also endeavored to give back to her community through pro bono work, including undertaking pro bono adoptions of foster children for Public Counsel and handling matters for indigent clients of Legal Aid.