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About Dr. Pensa

12 Years. 2 Trials. A Career Built on What She Learned.

Dr. Gita Pensa is an emergency physician who spent twelve years as a medical malpractice defendant — including two jury trials. She didn't emerge from that experience wanting to put it behind her. She emerged knowing what clinicians in litigation actually need: someone who understands the process from the inside, and who can help them perform well, protect their well-being, and get through it with their career and sense of self intact.

Today she coaches physician defendants, teaches litigation readiness, and is widely recognized as a leading voice on litigation stress and defendant performance — by clinicians, defense attorneys, and insurers across the country.

About Dr. Pensa

From Defendant to Advocate: The Doctor Who Lived It

After enduring 12 years of medical malpractice litigation—including two high-stakes jury trials—Dr. Gita Pensa discovered her true calling: helping other clinicians navigate the process she knows all too well.

Today, she's recognized as the nation's leading expert on litigation stress and defendant performance, trusted by clinicians, attorneys, and insurers nationwide.

Gita Pensa, M.D., has practiced emergency medicine in Rhode Island since 2001. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1997 and completed the combined George Washington/Georgetown Emergency Medicine Residency in Washington, D.C., graduating as Chief Resident in 2001.

After thirteen years of community emergency medicine, she joined the faculty at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University in 2014. She is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

She is the creator and host of Doctors and Litigation: The L Word, a podcast on the legal, psychological, and professional dimensions of malpractice litigation. She served as host and editor of AEM Early Access — the research podcast of the Academic Emergency Medicine journal — through 2024, and remains a regular contributor to EM:RAP and co-host of its UC Max program. Until 2022, she served as a Mary B. Arnold Longitudinal Mentor to more than forty medical students annually at Brown.

She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband, three daughters, and a (mostly) good dog named Maggie.

Trusted by Physicians Nationwide

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Trusted by Physicians Nationwide

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Beyond the Work

When I'm not coaching defendants or teaching, I'm home in Providence with my husband, three daughters, and Maggie.

I think about them when I'm doing this work. Every clinician in litigation is someone's partner, parent, or friend. The stress doesn't stay in the deposition room — it comes home. That's something I know from the inside, not just from coaching.

Twelve years of litigation taught me something that I couldn't have learned any other way: you can't put your life on hold waiting for the case to be over. Life keeps happening. The question is what you make of it while it does.

That's what this work is really about.

 

Photo: Dr. Pensa competing in a charity ballroom dancing competition in 2018, one week before her second trial

Ready to Work Together?

 

Whether you're currently in litigation, want to be prepared before it happens, or are looking to bring this training to your organizations — let's talk.

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