Melody A. Kramer brings an outstanding record of accomplishments to the Exemplar Team.  She is an 18-year veteran litigator, handling a diverse caseload in state and federal courts primarily including patent infringement litigation, general business litigation, construction law, personal injury, defamation, and transactional work.

Melody is an artist in advocacy, always looking for new opportunities to expand her trial litigation skills.  Embracing challenges, she has a history of taking on difficult cases and persevering to successful conclusions for her clients.  More recently, she has been working on getting a black belt in taekwondo and participating in ExtremaTM, a combination of the award-winning FAST self-defense/empowerment training with elite Marine Recon combat fitness program.   She is using techniques and lessons learned in these martial arts to refine her litigation skills.

Melody began her career as Deputy Public Defender in rural Columbus, Nebraska, and opened her own law firm in Lincoln, Nebraska just two years after graduating from law school.  She initially specialized in criminal defense, juvenile law, and general civil litigation.

While in Nebraska, Melody also worked as a Special Prosecutor for a pilot project through the U.S. Department of Justice for enhanced detection and prosecution of crimes against children on the Omaha Indian Reservation.  This entailed coordinating investigative and prosecution efforts with local, state, and federal agencies, including the FBI, BIA, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Child Protection Center in Sioux City, Iowa.  She successfully prosecuted cases and increased real jail time served by offenders during her tenure with the project.

Melody was actively involved with the Nebraska State Bar Association, including working on the Ethics Committee and the Judiciary Committee, the Sale of Law Practice Subcommittee, Gender/Bias Subcommittee, and the Bench/Bar Conference Program Committees for 1997, 1998, and 1999.  She was also appointed to a subcommittee studying judicial pay equity by Justice Inbody of the Nebraska Supreme Court.  In 1999, Melody returned to California and turned her focus to general civil litigation.

For the past several years, Melody has handled IP licensing transactions with major U.S. and foreign corporations, and also represented a research and development company in complex patent litigation matters around the country.

Melody received her B.A. in Music from Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska and her J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law where she was selected to receive The Order of Barristers for excellence in the art of courtroom advocacy.

Melody is licensed to practice in California, Nebraska (inactive) and has been admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for Southern California, Central California, Northern California & Nebraska, Federal Circuit, 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Omaha Tribal Court.

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