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Finalist: Public Service & Pro Bono
By Mark Curriden
(Jan. 12) – Stacie McNulty was a second-year law student at Chicago’s Loyola University School of Law when she traveled to South Africa on a research project on HIV and inhibitors to health and treatment.
For three weeks, she conducted interviews in Johannesburg and toured medical facilities in Cape Town.
“One issue we looked at was whether patent laws in South Africa acted as a barrier, preventing people from accessing HIV treatments,” McNulty says. “We found that in South Africa, patent laws were not the problem. The primary factors that limited access to HIV treatment and care were systemic, such as poverty, stigma, lack of infrastructure and a lack of well-trained nurses and health workers.”
Nine years later, McNulty is the director of litigation at Plano-based PanOptis Patent Management and a highly respected intellectual property lawyer whose articles have been cited in opinions issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
“It is exciting to be involved in patent litigation in the global context right now,” she says. “We are seeing important developments in the legal landscape, particularly in the context of FRAND and competition law. It requires constant learning and staying ahead of the issues.”
McNulty is a finalist for the 2017 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Public Service & Pro Bono. The finalists are being honored at the official awards event hosted by the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook on Thursday, Jan. 25, at the Bush Institute.
McNulty was a lawyer at two prominent patent law firms – McKool Smith and Nelson Bumgardner – representing prominent corporations, including Ericsson, Halliburton and VirnetX.
“Stacie’s greatest strength as a lawyer is that she has a tireless work ethic, and she places a great emphasis on detail and questions everything,” says Gray Reed partner Jared Hoggan, who has worked with McNulty for seven years. “But I had no idea of the extent of Stacie’s commitment to pro bono and HIV causes. It blew me away.”
McNulty grew up in Michigan. Her mother was a nutritionist and dance instructor. Her father worked as a salesman and engineer for Castrol Oil. She received a degree in brain, behavior and cognitive science from the University of Michigan.
“I became fascinated with infectious diseases and I was stunned that we as a society could not get ahead of them,” McNulty says.
The trip to South Africa dramatically changed McNulty’s life.
Despite the heavy workload, McNulty dedicates hundreds of hours a year educating and advocating for people living with HIV here and in South Africa, often focusing on the legal needs and rights of those with HIV.
McNulty is heavily involved with several HIV-related charities. She is a director of HOPE Cape Town USA, which she helped start two years ago, and is a member of the executive committee of the Ryan White Planning Committee, which is charged with allocating and overseeing the utilization of more than $20 million in state and federal funding to HIV and AIDS programs in North Texas. She also is co-chair of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, which educates leaders of the criminal justice system about HIV issues and alternative public health solutions.
“I think it is important for people – especially lawyers – to get involved and give back to their communities,” she says. “We cannot complain about things if we don’t get involved and try to help.
“I’m curious by nature and a problem-solver,” she says.
Hoggan says McNulty “embodies the spirit” of the Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Public Service & Pro Bono Award.
“Stacie does not brag about her pro bono work,” Hoggan says. “She seeks no publicity. She does it because it is part of her heart.”
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