2024 Unsung Legal Heroes: Carrie Joines

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ROBINS KAPLAN LLP

Prior to joining Robins Kaplan LLP in 2019, Carrie Joines was a nurse who had developed a growing interest in the law.

She had noticed that doctors sometimes didn’t prescribe treatment in the way medical literature says they should. As a result, she took a certificate course in legal nursing at Duke University. Then, while Joines was working at Health Partners in a patient counseling role, her career took a dramatic turn “out of a clear blue sky.” Robins Kaplan LLP contacted her via LinkedIn, looking for a legal nurse.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In her five years with Robins Kaplan, Joines has become an integral part of the firm’s medical malpractice group. The lawyers have come to rely on Joines’ expertise from initial case review to
discovery and trial.

One important case in which Joines played a role involved a 42-year-old mother of three, Anna Hardy, who died of a massive blood clot in her lungs after her primary care doctor failed to recognize her risk factors and did not prescribe proper treatment.

The trial, venued in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, lasted more than a week and resulted in a multimillion- dollar verdict. The key, Joines said, may have been the testimony of Hardy’s shy 17-year-old daughter.

“That young woman got up on the stand and gave the most powerful testimony I could ever have imagined,” Joines recalled. “It was so emotional. I was trying to hold myself together and not call
attention to myself, but I was so proud of her.”

At Robins Kaplan, Joines has gained a reputation for bringing that sort of human touch to her job. But the key to being an effective medical analyst is a bit more nuts-and-bolts, in Joines’ estimation.

“You have to love the details,” she said. “You have to love the research and being in a medical record for hours on end and noticing every little thing. But I also think that being a great teammate is key. These are intense cases with incredibly sad outcomes and heartbroken families. So the more cohesive we can be as a team, the stronger we can be as advocates for our clients.”