Brenda S. Fulmer

BRENDA S. FULMER is a shareholder with the law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, one of the largest personal injury law firms in Florida.  For the past 20 years, her 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 Actos; AMO and Bausch & Lomb Contact Lens Solution; Avandia; Baycol; Bextra; Biomet Metal on Metal Hip Implants; Breast Implants; CardioGen PET scans; DePuy ASR and Pinnacle Metal on Metal Hip Implants; Digitek; Drospirenone Birth Control Pills (Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, Gianvi, Beyaz, Safyral, and Loryna); Fen-Phen Diet Drugs; Fosamax and other bisphosphonates; Gadolinium; Gulf Coast Oil Spill; Heart Devices; Heparin; Hormone Replacement Therapy; Kugel Mesh; Levaquin; Mirena; NuvaRing; Ortho Evra; Pain Pumps; PPA; Power Morcellator; Pradaxa; Propulsid; Reglan; Smith & Nephew Hip Implants; SSRI Antidepressant Birth Defect Cases; Stryker Rejuvenate, ABG II, and Accolade Modular Hip Implants; Sulzer Hip and Knee Implants; tobacco; Transvaginal and Bladder Slings (including products sold by Bard, Coloplast, Johnson & Johnson/Ethicon, Mentor, Boston Scientific, AMS, ARIS, and ProteGen); Trasylol, Xarelto, Vioxx; Wright Medical Metal on Metal Hip Implants; Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implants; Viagra; Xarelto; Zimmer NexGen Knee Implants; and Zofran.

She has been named one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers Association, 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 has also been named a Fellow to the Litigation Counsel of America. She serves on the Board of Governors for AAJ 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, Florida Justice Association (FJA), American Association for Justice (AAJ), Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), Women En Mass (WEM), and various mass torts-related litigation groups and consortiums. 

She formerly served as co-lead of the AAJ Pradaxa litigation group and currently serves as co-lead of the AAJ Biomet Litigation Group.  In July of 2015, she was appointed as Vice Chair of the Membership Oversight Committee for the American Association for Justice and will be working on membership recruitment and retention for this national plaintiffs’ trial lawyer organization, and has worked on membership recruitment for AAJ for many years.  She has also served on AAJ’s Marketing & Practice Development Committee, Trial Lawyers Care Committee, Compliance Committee, 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 on the Executive Committee for The National Trial Lawyers:  National Women Trial Lawyers Association Top 10. 

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. Ms. Fulmer also served on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees for the Pradaxa MDL in East St. Louis, Illinois and has been appointed to co-chair a Discovery Committee in the Xarelto MDL based in New Orleans. She has also involved in state and federal court multi-district litigation discovery committee common benefit work for more than 20 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; Stryker Rejuvenate & ABG II Hip Implants; and BP Oil Spill claims. 

Ms. Fulmer is a frequent lecturer on mass tort marketing, 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 Award from the American Justice Association for her membership recruitment work for that national trial lawyers’ organization. She recently co-authored Anatomy of a Personal Injury Lawsuit, published by Trial Guides.

Ms. Fulmer graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.S. in Finance, and received her Juris Doctor degree cum laude from Stetson College of Law. 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, 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: Coastal Boxer Rescue; Feed the Hungry at Village Baptist Church; 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 and exchange student host parent.