Very few medical malpractice or product liability law firms have the luxury of having actual physicians or nurses on their staff. The Beasley Firm is one of the few law firms that can honestly say that we have inside hospital knowledge that many firms do not have. We are particularly fortunate to have Ms. Coonan, a highly experienced trauma and emergency nurse, as part of our team. Ms. Coonan’s involvement with every potential medical negligence or personal injury case begins with an initial meeting and ends only after a successful resolution.
Ms. Coonan graduated from Frankford Hospital School of Nursing in 1985 as the President of her class, with Academic Excellence honors and was also the valedictorian of her graduating class. Among the many awards she acquired, Ms. Coonan also received the distinguished Excellence in the Nursing of Children award. At the same time she was pursuing her nursing degree at Frankford, she also obtained her Associates Degree from Penn State with academic honors.
Immediately upon graduation from nursing school, Patricia knew that she wanted to care for and help the most critically injured or ill patients. She applied her vast clinical knowledge in areas such as neonatal intensive care units, coronary care units, intensive care units, emergency rooms and trauma units. Throughout her clinical nursing career, Ms. Coonan also obtained highly specialized certifications in emergency room nursing, trauma, critical care, and telemetry, in addition to neonatal, pediatric, and adult advanced life support.
In 1997, Patricia had to leave clinical nursing due to a latex allergy. Even though she was unable to be at a patient’s bedside anymore, she still wanted to be a patient advocate, so she assumed a nursing administration position in a hospital’s Risk Management and Performance Improvement department. Within weeks of assuming the risk management position, Patricia realized that she was forced to work against the best interests of injured patients, putting the “business of medicine” ahead of patient needs. It was at that time, Ms. Coonan realized the only option for her to truly protect patients was to apply her experienced nursing skills and knowledge to the law to where it would really be heard or listened to. She enrolled in Temple University as a Political Science Major, maintaining a Magna Cum Laude status, with the plan to attend law school. In her final semester at Temple, she was required to do an internship. Patricia knew that she wanted to eventually work in a plaintiff’s law firm, on behalf of injured patients, so she chose a prominent plaintiffs’ law firm to complete her course requirement. After only two months of interning at the plaintiffs law firm, she was offered a full time position as a Legal Nurse Consultant. Within a few years, Ms. Coonan sought to work with the nationally known Beasley Law Firm, which in turn, was also eager to gain such an experienced health care professional for its clients. Patricia has surpassed every expectation the Firm and its clients had regarding her medical knowledge and insights into disease processes.
For the past 14 years, Patricia continues to use her clinical knowledge and expertise in reviewing medical malpractice or personal injury cases for deviations in the standard of care, negligence, or errors. She is a nationally known Legal Nurse Consultant, that also offers her materials for other Legal Nurse Consultants, so they can benefit from her experiences.
When Ms. Coonan is not working on the Firm’s cases with its attorneys, she is asked to participate in statewide trial lawyers’ conferences, Temple University Beasley School of Law’s LLM Trial Advocacy Program, and The Pennsylvania Bar Institute. Ms. Coonan is consistently asked to speak on various issues, such as medical ethics and avoiding malpractice. She has also been a guest speaker for the Philadelphia chapter of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants and other Legal Nurse Associations and groups.
