Washington D.C. Fellow Barry J. Nace is senior partner in the firm Paulson & Nace. For close to 40 years, Mr. Nace has worked to protect the rights of victims of medical malpractice, drug and product liability, wrongful death, and other personal injuries. Throughout his career, he has proven time and again that multimillion-dollar awards are not a matter of luck, but the result of experience, hard work, outstanding trial skills, and an unquestioned dedication to justice. To date, Mr. Nace has had dozens of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million - three in excess of $30 million.

Mr. Nace’s success offsets but does not diminish the sadness of his cases. Significant awards are gratifying for the justice they bring to people who have been injured through the negligence or fault of another. In his pursuit of justice, Mr. Nace has tried and developed scores of groundbreaking cases throughout the country at every level of the court system. He is admitted to more than a dozen Bars, including the U.S. Supreme Court. One of his cases, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in which the Supreme Court eased the standard for the admissibility of expert testimony, has generated more than 100 articles, newsletters, and Web sites devoted to an ongoing discussion of this landmark decision.

Mr. Nace has built his reputation in the most challenging, complex, and high-stakes areas of personal injury law – medical malpractice and product liability law. He has been repeatedly recognized as one of the best trial attorneys in the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan region. He was awarded Attorney of the Year by the D.C. Trial Lawyers Association and has been a finalist several times for Attorney of the Year by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. Mr. Nace has also been chosen by other attorneys as one of the Best Lawyers in America for the past 10 years and Who’s Who in American Law. He is one of only two attorneys in the District of Columbia to be certified as a trial attorney by both the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys. Both groups require significant trial experience as well as passage of an extensive written test.

Mr. Nace’s private practice is enriched by his commitment to advancing justice for individuals in the profession at large. He served as president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), the largest and most prestigious trial bar in the world with more than 60,000 members. His many other posts at ATLA have included chairman of the ATLA PAC, which lobbies to promote justice and fairness for injured persons. He has also served twice as president of the D.C. Trial Lawyers Association. He has served as a director of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the National Board of Trial Advocacy, of which he has recently been elected to the post of president-elect, and the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation, of which he is a founding member. He lectures frequently on trial advocacy, medical malpractice, and product liability at Bar and other professional associations and law schools.

Mr. Nace was born and educated in Pennsylvania, graduating from Dickinson College in 1965 with a B.S. in chemistry and Dickinson School of Law in 1969, from where he was also awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1994. He lives in Maryland with his wife of nearly 30 years and has three grown sons.

Certification/Specialties

• Board Certified, National Board of Trial Advocacy, Civil Practice
• Board Certified, National Board of Professional Liability Attorneys, Medical Malpractice

Bar Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court, 1973
Maryland, 1970
District of Columbia, 1971
Pennsylvania, 1972
West Virginia, 1997
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Court Appointments

D.C. Court of Appeals, Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, 1994 - 2000

Elected Memberships

The American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics
Best Lawyers in America
Best Lawyers in Washington, D.C.
Who's Who in American Law
Scribes
The Counsellors
American Law Institute

Awards

• Attorney of the Year, Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Trial Lawyers Association, 1976
• Nominee/Finalist for Attorney of the Year, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1995
• Special Recognition Award, D.C. Trial Lawyers Association, 1988
• Outstanding Achievement Award, Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., 1994
Professional Associations and Memberships
• Association of Trial Lawyers of America
- President, 1993 - 1994
- Vice President, 1992 - 1993
- Treasurer, 1990 - 1992
- Board of Governors, 1978 - 1988
- Chairman, Public Relations Department, 1980 - 1982
- Chairman, Political Action Committee, 1995 - 1997
- Vice Chairman, Professional Research and Development, 1983
- State Delegate and Vice Chair, 1988 - 1989
- Member, Exchange Advisory Committee, 1987 - 1990
- Member, Home Office and Budget Committee, 1984 - 1992
• International Academy of Trial Lawyers, Board of Directors, 2003
• D.C. Trial Lawyers Association
- President, 1977 - 1978
- President, 1986 -1987
• Maryland Trial Lawyers Association
• West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association
• Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association
• Association of Personal Injury Lawyers in Great Britain
• Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation
Founding Member- Board of Directors, 1987 - 1988, 2003 - present
• D.C. Bar Association, Negligence Division, Steering Committee, 6 years
• Bar Association of D.C., Chairman, Medical-Legal Committee, 1980
• Montgomery County Bar Association
• Roscoe Pound Foundation
Board of Trustees, 1993 - 1995
- Permanent Honorary Trustee, 1995
- Participant, 1989 Warren Conference, Roscoe Pound Foundation on
“Medical Quality and the Law”
• American Board of Trial Advocates, Associate
• American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys, Diplomate, medical malpractice
• Lambert Society, Trustee
• Civil Justice Foundation, Founder
• National Board of Trial Advocacy, Board of Directors, 2000 -present, president-elect 2005, president 2007 - 2009
• Belli Society

Political Activities

• ATLA PAC
- Chair, 1995 – 1997
- Trustee 1992 – 1997
• DC LEGAL
Trustee 1977 - 1994, 2002 - present, chair 2006

Educational Activities

American Law Institute
American Inns of Court, Master
National College of Trial Advocacy, Lecturer and Workshop Leader
NITA Patent Trial Practice Program, Leader
Brookings Institute, Charting a Future for the Civil Jury System, Participant
Guest Lecturer, Medical Malpractice and Product Liability Law
• Dickinson School of Law
• George Washington University School of Law

• American University Law School
• D.C. Medical Society
Lecturer, Medical Malpractice and Product Liability Law
• Association of Trial Lawyers of America
• Phi Kappa Phi Annual Convention, 1993
• Expert Witness Seminar, San Francisco, 1993
• Australian Trial Lawyers, 1993
• American College of Legal Medicine, 1994
• ALI-ABA Program on Product Liability, 1994
• More than 34 state Bar associations around the country

Guest, various radio and television programs, including CNN, Fox Morning Show, Pat Buchanan Show, Kamber-O’Leary Report, It’s Your Business, and Techno-Politics

Legislative Activities

Testified on malpractice legislation before Maryland House of Delegates and D.C. City Council on numerous occasions

Notable Appellate Decisions

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 113 S. Ct. 2786 (1993)
Gubbins v. Hurson, et al., 885 A.2d 269 (D.C. 2005)
Ambrosini v. Labarraque, 966 F.2d 1464 (DC Cir. 1992)
Nimetz v. Cappadona, 596 A.2d 603 (DC App. 1991)
DePyper v. Navarro, No. 11630 (Mich. Ct. App. Nov. 6, 1998)
Oxendine v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 506 A.2d 1100 (DC 1986); 563 A.2d 330 (DC 1989)
Adkins v. Morton, 494 A.2d 652 (DC App. 1985)
In Re Bendectin Prod. Liab. Litig., 749 F.2d 300 (6th Cir. 1984)
LaMade v. Wilson, 512 F.2d 1348 (DC Cir. 1975)
Jacron v. Sindorff, 27 Md. App. 53, 341 A.2d 856 (Md. Ct. App., 1975)