Facing his life and his law practice without his famous father, Rosser Adams "Adam" Malone expressed gratitude for the time they had and hope for the work ahead.

"I've always known I had a real privilege to learn from the person I consider to be the best in the field—and who a lot of other people did too," Adam Malone said of his father, the lawyer behind a half-century of record-setting verdicts and awards who died Oct. 1 at the age of 76.

A quote attributed to Oscar Wilde came to mind: "Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."

"I can't be Tommy Malone and wouldn't even try," he said. "I can be the best version of Adam Malone I can be, and that's what I've been working on all of my life."

Adam Malone has been practicing for nearly 20 years. He said he and his father became partners at Malone Law in 2005. They talked periodically in more recent years about his dad slowing down, mostly when it was time to renew their Atlanta office lease. But then his dad would recommit and keep going strong. They had separate clients, staff and overhead and worked on some cases together. Tommy Malone didn't retire until after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2016.

"My practice was already established," Adam Malone said. "The only thing that happened when he retired was I immediately hired all his employees so that nobody lost their job. We just kept doing all the same things we'd been doing before. We all miss him. His touch is sort of a magic bullet."

Malone said he is thankful also for the time he had with his dad in the end. He spent the last two weeks with him in Florida at the Palm Beach home of Tommy and Debbie Malone. He marveled at his father's strength and fighting spirit right up until the end.

"I was able to be with him when he took his last breath," the younger Malone said.

He said his father faced death the same way he faced juries.

"He had no fear of confronting anything—even when he knew he would lose—if it was the right thing to do," he said.

Tommy Malone endured 76 rounds of chemotherapy and lived far longer than his doctors gave him reason to expect. He and Debbie hosted many visits from friends, family and Georgia lawyers in their Palm Beach home. They were able to enjoy the biography published by Mercer University Press in 2018: "Tommy Malone, Trial Lawyer: And the Light Shone Through … The Guiding Hand Shaping One of America's Greatest Trial Lawyers," by Vincent Coppola.

Adam said his father told him, "I must be the luckiest man on Earth."

"Why do you say that, Dad?" he recalled asking.

"Not many people get to be alive for their own funeral—and hear all the wonderful things that are said," was the elder Malone's response, according to the son.

For that reason, Adam said his dad told the family they didn't need to have a big event to mark his passing. So they gathered for a private service this past weekend in his hometown of Albany.

"From my earliest memory I've always wanted to be a lawyer," Adam Malone said. "I looked up to my dad as a little kid. He was like a superhero to me."

Adam Malone has performed heroics himself for clients with devastating injuries and losses. It was his case that ended the tort reform era cap on noneconomic damage awards—such as those for pain and suffering—of $350,000 in medical malpractice cases. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 2010 that the cap was unconstitutional and struck it down. The case was Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery v. Nestlehutt.

Although that was Adam Malone's case, he and Tommy Malone worked on many other cases together—including the one Coppola used to open the biography, involving Tucker Sutton, severely brain-damaged at birth by lack of oxygen. The Malones tried the case twice. The first was a mistrial. The second was headed that way—until they brokered an agreement with opposing counsel to accept a majority verdict rather than a unanimous one, triggering a policy limit payment from a high-low agreement.

Creative solutions, willingness to take risks and a reason to do it that's bigger than oneself were lessons handed down to Adam Malone.

"For nearly all my 47 years, I've been paying attention," he said.

"His purpose here is the same as mine—to do what I can to be of service and make a meaningful difference in people's lives," he said. "I intend to keep doing this work for the rest of my days."