Rosalind Bienvenu | Partner
Rosalind B. Bienvenu is a partner in the firm’s Santa Fe, New Mexico office. She focuses her practice on civil appeals and strategic trial support at both the state and federal level. Prior to joining the firm, Rosalind worked as a trial attorney specializing in complex litigation including catastrophic injury, toxic tort, product defect, and pharmaceutical cases. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of the State Bar of New Mexico Appellate Practice Section, and she served as Chair from 2022 to 2023. She is also a Member of the Uniform Jury Instructions-Civil Committee and a Barrister of the Oliver Seth American Inn of Court.
Rosalind earned her law degree from New York University School of Law, cum laude, where she was a Florence Allen Scholar and Managing Editor of the NYU Law Review. During law school, she interned at Sanctuary for Families, New York’s leading service provider and advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sex trafficking. She began her legal career at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison LLP in New York, practicing complex commercial litigation with a focus on securities, class action, intellectual property, insurance, and white collar criminal matters. Committed to offering pro bono legal assistance, she also successfully represented clients seeking political asylum and refugee status in the United States. From 2014 to 2015, she served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Paul J. Kelly, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Rosalind earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, magna cum laude, where she studied English literature and documentary filmmaking. Before attending law school, she lived in Eastern Europe as a Henry Russell Shaw Fellow, taught English in rural Japan, and worked for Google in its Cambridge, Massachusetts office.
Rosalind is licensed to practice in New Mexico, Texas, and New York.
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Livingston Land, LLC v. Brooker, No. A-1-CA-38948, 2023 WL 2017517 (N.M. App. Feb. 15, 2023)
Successfully convinced New Mexico Court of Appeals to affirm judgment rejecting contract and fraud claims against state licensed medical cannabis growers for failure to prove damages.
Read OpinionWalker v. Carlsbad Med. Ctr., LLC, No. A-1-CA-40662, 2023 WL 209184 (N.M. Ct. App. Jan. 17, 2023)
Successfully convinced the New Mexico Court of Appeals to reverse summary judgment in a medical malpractice case in which the defendant hospital administered incorrect blood pressure medications to the wrong patient, causing a life-threatening drop in blood pressure. The Court of Appeals found that the grant of summary judgment was error because plaintiff’s medical expert’s testimony permitted a reasonable inference of causation.
Read OpinionAquifer Science v. Verhines, et al., 2023-NMCA-020, 527 P.3d 667 (2022)
Successfully defended decision to deny developer’s water application that would have impaired existing wells and would have been contrary to conservation of water in New Mexico, along with cost award, including post-judgment interest, to prevailing public interest group that opposed water application.
Read OpinionMata v. Cade, No. CV 2:21-217 JCH/GJF, 2022 WL 1452898 (D. N.M. May 9, 2022)
Successfully moved for reconsideration of denial of motion to remand on behalf of a client who was seriously injured by a commercial motor vehicle in Lea County, New Mexico. On reconsideration, the district court agreed that federal diversity jurisdiction requires diversity to exist at both the time an action is filed in state court and the time it is removed to federal court. Because the parties were non-diverse at the time of removal, remand to state court was required.
Read OpinionCirrus Design Corp. v. Berra, 633 S.W.3d 640 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2021, no pet.)
Affirming trial court’s order denying special appearance by an aircraft manufacturer in a wrongful death products liability case. The plaintiff’s husband was killed when his aircraft crashed in Bexar County. The Minnesota-based aircraft manufacturer challenged the court’s exercise of specific personal jurisdiction, arguing that the manufacturer lacked the necessary minimum contacts with Texas because the plaintiff’s claims did not arise from or relate to any purposeful activity it conducted in Texas. The Court of Appeals, citing the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Ford Motor Co. v. Mont. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., and the recent Texas Supreme Court decision, Luciano v. SprayFoamPolymers.com, LLC, rejected the aircraft manufacturer’s arguments and held that the the exercise of specific personal jurisdiction was proper.
Read Opinion -
Roz Bienvenu argues in the New Mexico Supreme Court!
Congratulations to Santa Fe partner, Roz Bienvenu, who presented argument in the New Mexico Supreme Court on October 4, 2024. Roz argued on behalf of the Plaintiffs-Real Parties in Interest in Shook, Hardy & Bacon v. Wilson, an extraordinary writ proceeding arising from two lawsuits filed by the Alvarez Law Firm. The Plaintiffs-Real Parties in Interest developed smoking-related illnesses as a result of the well-known tobacco conspiracy. When they sued a tobacco manufacturer and three law firms for their participation in the conspiracy, the law firms moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Two district courts denied their motions, ruling that the conspiracy theory of jurisdiction permitted suit against them in New Mexico. The law firms then sought an extraordinary writ of prohibition, arguing that the conspiracy theory of jurisdiction is unconstitutional.Santa Fe office wins in the New Mexico Court of Appeals!
Congratulations to Santa Fe partners, Caren Friedman, Justin Kaufman, and Roz Bienvenu, who successfully convinced the New Mexico Court of Appeals to affirm the judgment in this probate case involving a dispute over the decedent’s property. At the heart of the dispute was the Estate’s claim of a valid contract that allegedly distributed valuable water rights appurtenant to land near Truchas in Northern New Mexico.Roz Bienvenu wins significant motion to remand in bus crash case in New Mexico!
Congratulations to Roz Bienvenu, Justin Kaufman, and trial counsel, Jim Hada, who successfully moved to remand a case from federal to state court in New Mexico for the family of a student killed in a bus crash returning from a college golf tournament. The district court held that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations do not create a private right of action for personal injury or wrongful death, and the plaintiffs’ complaint did not raise federal questions turning on the substantive construction of federal law.Roz Bienvenu moderates NM Appellate Practice Institute!
On September 9, 2022, Santa Fe Partner Rosalind Bienvenu, current Chair of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico State Bar’s Appellate Practice Section, moderated the Section’s 33rd Annual Appellate Practice Institute, a daylong webinar featuring distinguished panel members from the appellate bench and bar.Roz Bienvenu begins term as President of the New Mexico State Bar Appellate Section!
DP&S is pleased to announce that our Santa Fe partner, Rosalind B. Bienvenu, has taken the helm of the New Mexico State Bar Appellate Practice Section. Roz will serve as the President of the Board of Directors for a one-year term in 2022. She will bring to the Section her exceptional skills as an appellate practitioner, and we wish her well! -
Moderator – 33rd Annual New Mexico Appellate Practice Institute
New Mexico State Bar’s Appellate Practice Section, September 9, 2022
Phone: (505) 986-0600
Fax: (505) 986-0632
✉ Email Rosalind
⇲ Download Resume
Address:
505 Cerrillos Rd Suite A209
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501