BRENDA
S. FULMER
is
a Partner and Shareholder with the law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart
& Shipley, P.A., one of the largest personal injury law firms in Florida.
She also serves on the firm’s executive committee and leads the firm’s
dedicated mass tort unit, which focuses on complex litigation for defective
drugs, medical devices, and consumer products.
For
the past 26 years, Ms. Fulmer’s practice has focused on the areas of
pharmaceutical and medical device mass torts litigation. Over the years, she
has represented thousands of claimants in claims and individual actions filed
in state and federal courts involving 3M Dual-Ended Combat Arms earplugs;
Abilify; Actos; Aelsculap knee implants; AMO and Bausch & Lomb contact lens
solution; Avandia; Baycol; Belviq; Bextra; Biomet metal-on-metal hip implants; breast
implants; CardioGen PET scans; Cialis; DePuy ASR and Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip
implants; DePuy Attune knee implants; Digitek; drospirenone birth control pills
(Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, Gianvi, Beyaz, Safyral, and Loryna); Eliquis; Elmiron;
Ethicon surgical staplers; Fen-Phen diet drugs; FinPlus compounded finasteride;
Fosamax and other bisphosphonates; Gadolinium; Gulf Coast oil spill; Medtronic
and Guidant and Medtronic leads, pacemakers and defibrillators; Heparin; hormone
replacement therapy; Bard Kugel and Ethicon hernia mesh; Invokana; IVC filters;
JUUL vaping pods; Levaquin; Mirena; NuvaRing; Ortho Evra; pain pumps; PPA;
Power Morcellator devices; Pradaxa; Propulsid; Proton pump inhibitors; Provigil
and Nuvigil; Reglan; Smith & Nephew Birmingham, R3, SMF and REDAPT hip implants;
SSRI antidepressant birth defect cases; Stockert 3T heating/cooling devices;
Stryker Rejuvenate, ABG II, Accolade, and LFIT V40 modular hip implants; Sulzer
hip and knee implants; tobacco; transvaginal mesh and bladder slings (including
products sold by Bard, Caldera, Coloplast, Johnson & Johnson/Ethion,
Mentor, Boston Scientific, Cook Medical, Neomedic, Covidien, AMS, ARIS,
Sofradim, and ProteGen); Trasylol, Viagra; Vioxx; Wright Medical metal-on- metal
hip implants; Xarelto; Zantac; Zimmer-Biomet reverse shoulder implants; Zimmer
Durom Cup hip implants; Zimmer M/L Taper and VerSys hip implants; Zimmer NexGen
knee implants; and Zofran.
For
several years, Ms. Fulmer has been named one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by The
National Trial Lawyers, selected as a Super Lawyer from Florida, listed as one
of Florida Trend’s Florida Legal Elite, and included in The Best
Lawyers in America. She has received an “AV Preeminent” rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
She also has been named a fellow to the Litigation Counsel of America and
recognized on several occasions as one of the 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer
Lawyers by Lawdragon.
Ms.
Fulmer serves on the board of governors for the American Association for
Justice and the Florida Justice Association and works each year lobbying on
state and federal drug and medical device issues. She is also active in the
Palm Beach County Bar Association, Palm Beach County Justice Association, The Florida
Bar, Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), Women En Mass (WEM),
Florida Association for Women Lawyers, American Bar Association, the Duke
Conference and Emory Conferences on mass tort litigation, and various mass
torts-related litigation groups and consortiums.
She
has served in various leadership positions with the American Association for
Justice: executive committee, Evergreen Fund committee, PAC board, marketing
& practice development committee, Trial Lawyers Care committee, compliance committee,
law school committee, diversity committee, selection committee for the AAJ
Leadership Academy, litigation group leaders council, and exchange advisory committee.
She also serves in leadership roles with the Florida Justice Association Women’s
Caucus, the American Association for Justice Women’s Caucus, and the executive committee
for The National Trial Lawyers. She also serves on the Florida Justice
Association membership and CLE Committees. She formerly served as co-lead of
the AAJ Pradaxa Litigation Group and currently serves as co-lead of the AAJ
Biomet Litigation Group. She has been appointed to serve as co-lead counsel of
the Biomet Hip Implant Litigation MDL proceedings pending in the United States
District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in South Bend as a member
of Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee #2 and previously served on Plaintiffs’
Steering Committee #1 for the Biomet MDL. She has also been appointed to the
Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the Zimmer M/L Taper and VerSys Hip Implant
MDL Litigation in the United States District Court for the Southern District of
New York in Manhattan. Ms. Fulmer previously served on the Plaintiffs’ Steering
Committees for the Pradaxa MDL in East St. Louis, Illinois. She has also been
involved in state and federal court multi-district litigation discovery and
settlement committee common benefit work for more than 25 years for various
national pharmaceutical and medical device mass torts projects, including
breast implants; diet drugs; Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella; ProteGen bladder slings;
Vioxx; Mentor ObTape; DePuy ASR hip implants; Stryker Rejuvenate & ABG II hip
implants; Stryker Accolade and LFIT V40 hip implants; and BP oil spill claims.
Ms.
Fulmer is a frequent lecturer on mass tort marketing, law office management,
drug and medical device litigation and consumer drug safety issues. She has
received the Bronze Eagle, Shoe Leather, and Cornerstone awards from the
Florida Justice Association for her efforts in membership recruitment, political
fundraising, and lobbying. She has also received the President’s Distinguished
Service and Above and Beyond Awards on several occasions from the American
Justice Association for her membership recruitment and fundraising work for
that national trial lawyers’ organization. In 2016, she was honored with the
Marie Lambert Award given in recognition of exemplary leadership to the
profession, to her community, to AAJ, and to AAJ’s Women Trial Lawyers Caucus.
She is also proud to be a graduate of AAJ’s first Leadership Academy program
and continues to support the diversity and leadership development program
through her family foundation.
She
is a published author, having co-authored a chapter on mass torts litigation
for “Anatomy of a Personal Injury Lawsuit,” published by Trial Guides
and several articles for AAJ’s Trial magazine. She also served as a team
leader involved in the drafting and publication of Guidelines and Best
Practices for Large and Mass-Tort MDLs with the Bolch Judicial Institute at
Duke Law School. She has also been awarded J.D. Supra’s Reader’s Choice awards
on several occasions for her online legal publications.
Ms.
Fulmer graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.S. in finance in
1990 and received her Juris Doctor degree cum laude from Stetson College
of Law in 1993. She was an assistant editor of the Stetson Law Review
and twice earned recognition as an Outstanding Law Review member. She served as
a federal judicial intern for Judge Kovachevich and worked on pro bono projects
as a Florida Bar Foundation Public Service Fellow and an intern with Gulf Coast
Legal Services.
An
Indiana native, Ms. Fulmer has been an active volunteer with a number of
charitable organizations: Take Stock in Children; Coastal Boxer Rescue; Feed
the Hungry; Special Olympics of Palm Beach County; Seagull Industries;
Supporters of the Pre-Law Magnet, Inc. at Palm Beach Lakes High School; Buddy
Break (providing respite care for autistic and physically-challenged children);
Special Olympics; Girl Scouts; and Trial Lawyers Care (providing free legal
services to the victims of 9/11 and those impacted by disasters). She has also
volunteered as a foster parent (for children and dogs) and as an exchange
student host parent for several years.
and an intern with Gulf Coast Legal Services. She was recently named one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the American Trial Lawyers Association. She is active in the Palm Beach County Bar Association, Palm Beach County Justice Association, Florida Justice Association, American Association for Justice, and various mass torts-related litigation groups and consortiums.
Ms. Fulmer is active in multi-district litigation discovery committee work for various national pharmaceutical and medical device mass torts projects, including groups focusing on Digitek, Heparin, pain pumps, AMO Contact Lens Solution, Levaquin, gadolinium, bladder slings, Rhino ATVs, ReNu Contact Lens Solution, Ortho-Evra, hormone replacement therapy, Vioxx, Bextra, heart devices, diet drugs, Baycol, Propulsid, PPA, Sulzer hip and knee implants, Rezulin, breast implants, Reglan, Yaz/Yasmin/Ocella, denture cream, Trasylol, Fentanyl pain patches, oral sodium phosphate and others.
An Indiana native, Ms. Fulmer has been an active volunteer with a number of charitable organizations, including Seagull Industries; Board of Directors for Supporters of the Pre-Law Magnet, Inc. at Palm Beach Lakes High School; Buddy Break, providing respite care for autistic and physically-challenged children; the Girl Scouts; and Trial Lawyers Care, which provides free legal services to the victims of 9/11.
