Meet Molly Condon Wells

Molly Condon Wells is the first female partner at Wallace Miller. In addition to being court-appointed to leadership in two multidistrict litigations in 2023, Molly works on mass tort cases and the BCBS class action and represents plaintiffs in sexual abuse cases.

What do you find to be the most rewarding element of practicing law?

Actually being able to make connections with clients and knowing that what you’re doing is making a positive impact on their life. For many people, they’re dealing with the worst thing that’s ever happened to them. And to be able to give them some sort of closure or resolution is truly the best part of this job—when you have a client that’s genuinely happy and knows that you did what you could to resolve their issue.

Over your career, what has surprised you about working in law?

Something that I’ve come to find—and I say this a lot to people that I mentor—is that progressing in your legal career is like being in a video game, where you keep mastering different levels. Studying for the LSAT, your first year of law school, taking the bar exam all feel like the hardest thing you’ve ever done. And then you start your career as an associate and you’re like, this is even harder than law school and I’m learning all these things I didn’t know.

The practice of law is constantly evolving and requires unwavering dedication to knowing that there’s always going to be challenges. But assuming that you’re willing to always be learning and to teach yourself how to overcome challenges, it can be a very rewarding career.

How do you approach talking to clients who have gone through difficult experiences?

It’s really important to be willing to listen. Often this is the first time people have really talked to somebody about what’s happened to them, and they just want a safe space to explain what they’re going through. It’s important to have an open mind and listen to people.

There are a lot of firms where partner-level attorneys won’t be the first person to talk to a client. I want to talk to people one-on-one. It’s important for me to understand the case and understand their story in order to effectively represent them.

How do you navigate the process with clients who might not have any prior knowledge of complex litigation?

Really what we do, especially on the mass tort side, is very similar to individual personal injury products liability claims. It just so happens that they’re consolidated with a bunch of other cases to make it easier for the common legal and factual issues to be litigated. We still need to do the same type of investigation for each client. We still have to collect your medical records, understand the underlying issues, and answer discovery. There are complex scientific and legal aspects of the case we have to tackle. The biggest difference is that there are also a lot of other parties involved in the process before it can be resolved, so it requires a lot of patience.

What is it like working with lawyers across the country on these big cases?

Every litigation does it differently, but typically the court appoints who’s on leadership and who works on a case. Last year, I got two leadership appointments back-to-back, which doesn’t often happen. I was appointed as Liaison Counsel in the Tepezza MDL and to the Leadership Development Committee in the Hair Relaxer MDL.

One of my favorite things about working on mass tort and class action cases is that you have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best attorneys all over the country. I learn a lot from seeing how other people approach issues in a courtroom.

I believe the best way to be a good litigator is to go watch other good litigators. To have the opportunity to see how everyone across the country works, people at the top of their game, is an invaluable experience for anyone at any point in their career, because, again, the practice of law is a continual learning experience.

What other elements have shaped your career up to this point?

Relatively speaking, I’m still early in my career, and I am the only woman partner at the firm. I have encountered both opportunities and challenges because of that, but I have always focused on the wonderful opportunities given to me to help me succeed. When I became a mom, it motivated me to show as the best version of myself both as a lawyer and for my family. Being a working mom is harder than I imagined, but a huge reason why I’ve been able to succeed is that Wallace Miller is a supportive firm and has given me the flexibility to tackle what I need to at home and at the office.

What active cases are you working on?

Hair relaxer is still in the beginning stages—it’s only been a multidistrict litigation (MDL) for the last year. There’s a large team of lawyers from all over the country that are working to move it forward and get the discovery and documents we need. There are other mass torts that I am working on as well—the Paragard IUD MDL in the Northern District of Georgia; the TDF litigation in San Fransisco, California, which concerns HIV medications manufactured by Gilead; and the Tepezza MDL here in the Northern District of Illinois. I’m also working on the Blue Cross Blue Shield class action litigation.

I work on a lot of sexual abuse cases, which I find to be incredibly fulfilling and rewarding work. It is astonishing how many people are impacted by sexual abuse—it happens everywhere from classrooms to the backseat of an Uber. In talking to clients, it’s hard to wrap my head around how pervasive it is and how much victims suffer. I think all the work we do here is important, but this especially is an area that I feel connected to and can see a real difference helping my clients.

To learn more about Molly, check out her full bio here.

To learn more about her work on sexual abuse cases, including rideshare cases against Uber and Lyft, click here.