By April Hall
Joseph McHale, Esq., P’82 uses his pharmacy degree for more than filling prescriptions. As partner-in-charge of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young’s Malvern office, McHale defends both pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies.
For 10 years the Philadelphia native, who now lives in West Chester, Pa., was a pharmacist. But after graduating, he longed for another challenge. First, he received a master’s degree in health administration from St. Joseph’s University. Then he moved on to law school. He graduated magna cum laude from Widener Law in 1992.
However, McHale said his pharmacy education was a driving force.
“The University taught me how to think critically and logically—how to work hard,” he said.
In 2005, McHale was trial co-counsel in the first phenylpropanolamine case tried in Pennsylvania. Though a study suggested the drug caused strokes in its users, McHale obtained a verdict for the pharmaceutical company, showing that years of safe use of the drug overshadowed the Yale study.
Pharmaceutical cases are about 40 percent of his practice, McHale said, along with defending pharmacists in state board hearings. The other half of his practice is something quite different—he is responsible for litigation involving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
“I just started trying cases for the Archdiocese as a young lawyer, and my work with them grew from there,” he said. “While I do like working in the pharmacy/ pharmaceutical world, I am a trial lawyer first, and I will try any type of case, regardless of substance.”
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