by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Passion led to publication.
Anita Pryor is a partner at the law firm of Terrell Hogan and the former professor of nursing has been representing victims of asbestos exposure diagnosed with Mesothelioma and lung cancer for 19 years.
She has been contributing to the advancement of women in the workplace for longer than that, and the two passions made it an easy decision when she was asked to contribute to a book titled “Reaching the Bar: Stories of Women at All Stages of Their Law Careers.”
“They were looking for those women who had found a niche and asbestos is my niche,” said Pryor. “They were looking for women lawyers who had a story to tell.”
The story Pryor told involved a case where she had represented a merchant seaman who was diagnosed with Mesothelioma. Pryor’s challenge was to prove that the asbestos insulation wrapped around the pipes in the engine room of the ships her client worked in were the cause of his disease. This gathering of evidence took place many years after her client had been on a ship and couldn’t recall a lot of the ships he had been stationed on.
“Generally, exposure occurs 20-50 years earlier, after documentation has been destroyed and eyewitnesses are dead,” Pryor wrote in the book “Reaching the Bar.” “I had a big puzzle to put together in Michael’s case. He’d had a long career and served aboard many civilian vessels hauling cargo from port to port, so it was impossible for him to recall the details of each voyage.”
Her client died before the case went to trial, but Pryor won the case with the help of her client’s Coast Guard discharge certificates and testimony from experts, along with the wife and son her client had left behind.
“I had never put a child on the stand before, but I knew I needed the testimony of Michael’s eight-year-old son, Steven,” Pryor wrote. “I had to make the jury understand what this 8-year-old boy had lost, even though he was reluctant to share his grief.”
Pryor won the case and both the mother and the son were awarded $250,000 for their loss.
As a registered nurse in both Florida and Texas, Pryor has witnessed suffering and this is one of the reasons she is such a zealous advocate for victims like the client she discussed in the book.
She also has the same passion for helping women advance in the practice of law. As immediate past president of the Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association (JWLA), Pryor’s message during her term was “Empowering Women.”
“It is very important to me that women help each other and that is what this book is trying to accomplish,” said Pryor. “This book is written for other women lawyers and I am glad to share information to help other women lawyers who may be dealing with the same issues.”
She plans to continue to develop networking opportunities for women, including developing a referral network in asbestos litigation when she speaks at the National Asbestos Litigation Conference in San Francisco Sept. 23-25.
Pryor’s work in and out of the courtroom has drawn the attention of her colleagues at Terrell Hogan.
“Anita is an example for other women lawyers,” said Wayne Hogan, partner at Terrell Hogan. “Anita has show herself to be excellent in both the courtroom and the way she works with our clients. She has taken a leadership role in advancing the practice of law for women through her role with JWLA.”
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