Famed S.A. lawyer Marynell Maloney dies at 60

Many in San Antonio’s legal community are mourning the death of Marynell Maloney, a high-profile personal injury lawyer known for championing the rights of disadvantaged clients for more than 30 years.

Maloney, 60, died shortly after noon on Thursday, according to the Bexar County medical examiner’s office. Sources close to the family said she was in hospice care after being treated for cancer that was detected late and in advanced stages. Many had not known she was ill until her death was reported by local television stations on Friday.

Reared in Costa Rica, where her parents operated two private schools, Maloney had a master’s degree in psychology from Trinity University and graduated from St. Mary’s School of Law in 1980. While leading her own law firm in recent years, she specialized in serious medical malpractice, personal injury and wrongful death claims, according to her online biography.

In an in-depth interview with the San Antonio Express-News in 2004, Maloney called herself a “workaholic” and said, “I try to win in every way possible.”

“I outwork my adversaries, all of them,” she said.

She met Michael Maloney, son of famed local trial lawyer Pat Maloney Sr., in a philosophy class in the late 1970s. They married, and she studied law, then worked in her father-in-law’s firm before opening a practice with her husband. They divorced in 2004, a year before her father-in-law died at age 81.

Maloney developed her own reputation as a dogged, hard-driving lawyer whose lengthy depositions would weaken her opponents’ cases, forcing them to pay out hefty settlements to avoid embarrassment at trial. She won settlements for the family of a paralyzed nursing home resident impregnated by a facility worker and the indigent parents of a baby that suffered brain damage as a result of negligent care. Several of her settlements reportedly were in the tens of millions of dollars.

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia said Maloney was known as “a great lawyer” who would “take on corporations or institutions” on behalf of clients who had no other means of advocacy — little to spend on attorney fees and unable to find another lawyer to pursue legal action.

“Her reputation was excellent,” Garcia said. “She was always very well prepared and a strong advocate for people who had endured much, much pain.”

Some of her most noteworthy cases involved people who had become disabled through negligence, or nursing home residents who suffered as a result of inadequate care or unscrupulous practices, he said.

“These were individuals or groups who didn’t have great advocates,” Garcia said.

Many have credited Maloney’s work with improvements in screening of nursing home employees and upgraded medical care standards. But she also was criticized by some in the medical profession and by lawsuit reform advocates for her television commercials soliciting malpractice clients and for campaign contributions to Democratic judges.

Outside of her legal practice, Maloney had an apartment in Paris and spent much of her time in France. She collected art and dabbled in independent filmmaking.

Her daughter, Michelle M. Maloney, an associate in her law firm, is “the first member of the next generation of Maloney attorneys,” according to the firm’s website.