BY KAREN J. HOLUBPHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL MERTZ

While the rest of the downtown high-rise professionaltypes step into the elevator caffeine-soaked and groggy-eyed, Dick Mallery gets his morning infusion of energyby climbing the stairs—17 flights of them—to his Snell& Wilmer office at One Arizona Center, where herewards himself with a tall glass of grapefruit juice.

Dedication to good health is nothing new for Mallery, and for 38 yearshe has shared his love of fitness with the love of his life, his wife, Francie.Selecting present-tense verbs to describe their relationship, and takingobvious pleasure from indulging his mind with thoughts of her, it is clearthat this is a man who is deeply in love. So it might surprise anyone lis-tening to discover that Francie passed away in December 2001. ForMallery, it seems, her death has been more of a frustrating interruption totheir relationship than a true ending.

“I’ve known Francie for 40 years,” he says, “and we were and still arepartners in the most wonderful way.”

In excellent health, and no family history of cancer, Francie had beendiagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of gynecological cancer. TheMallerys sought treatment at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, head-ed by Dan Van Hoff. For the next two years, Francie endured chemother-apy and other treatments that bought them some time. But “chemother-apy is toxic,” says Mallery, “and eventually you just can’t have anymore.This cancer metastasized and we were struggling.”

Francie had been a registered dietician with a master’s degree in nutri-tion and biochemistry, and, according to her husband, was the real scien-tist in the family. Although he mentions an interest in science, Mallerydescribes himself as a “fuzzy.”

“I love ambiguity. I love chaos. I am fairy mystical in my own sense ofwhat we can know and what we don’t know.” Mallery, who has a master’sdegree in English literature and taught the subject at Cornell for a time,

32 A R I Z O N A AT T O R N E Y M A R C H 2 0 0 3 W W W. A Z B A R . O R G

Lawyer Plots a DNA Growth Industry

Mapping a Genomic Future

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MALLERY AT HOME WITHTHE FAMILY DOG, ROSIE.

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came to the practice of law only afterspending two years in the Methodist min-istry.

So how did this stair-climbing, fuzzy-brained, mystical attorney end up as thechairman of a decidedly not fuzzy interna-tional science organization? “As I startedthe quest for some better treatment forFrancie, I quickly became aware of thepotential of genomics.” He began collabo-rating with Van Hoff, who connected himwith one of the leading genomicsresearchers in the world—another nativeArizonan, Dr. Jeffrey Trent.

His timing couldn’t have been better.

Trent had recently completed his role ashead of the human genome project inBethesda, Md. Now he was ready to takethe critical next step—figuring out how touse the information to serve people whomay have or have the potential for a varietyof diseases and to find better ways to pre-vent disease.

“And so,” recalls Mallery, “Dan VanHoff, Jeff Trent and I started this projectin January of 2001.”

The project is the InternationalGenomics Consortium—the beginning ofthe bio-extravaganza that some see asArizona’s hope for a revitalized economy.The IGC is a nonprofit medical researchdatabase that works in collaboration withthe Translation Genomics Institute—TGen—a state university-driven researchfacility. Although they ultimately will sharespace and have a complementary partner-ship, they are separate entities with differ-ent missions and different boards (see side-bar).

The first official meeting of the IGC

34 A R I Z O N A AT T O R N E Y M A R C H 2 0 0 3 W W W. A Z B A R . O R G

took place in February 2001 and includedrepresentatives from science and academia.Electronics companies interested in bioin-formatics (developing the tools to mine sci-entific data) were also invited.

It was in these preliminary stages thatMallery approached community leaders,including Laura Grafman, trustee of theVirginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, aboutdeveloping support for the IGC. Grafmanadvised him on a business plan and con-nected him with the Flinn Foundation.They matched a $250,000 grant (from theGeorgia Cancer Coalition) enabling IGCto base its pilot studies for the gene expres-

sion database in Arizona.“Dick Mallery really fought to have this

happen, and fought to have it happen righthere in Arizona,” says Grafman. “So manygood things have come out of this tremen-dous driving force of his, this quest to curecancer, which took Francie at too early anage.”

Speaking from the temporary offices ofTGen in the Arizona Center, spokeswomanFrancie Noyes says, “None of this would behere if it weren’t for Dick Mallery. It washis commitment early on that started thewhole thing in motion.”

His commitment to this project is stillstrikingly apparent in his passionatedemeanor—not a surprise considering headmits his own need to find some purposefor Francie’s death. And his extensive back-ground in organizing the creation of otherpublic–private partnerships lends evenmore momentum to his determination.

“I am essentially a transactional lawyer,”says Mallery. “I have done consortia, eitherin the corporate world or in the academic

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International Genomics ConsortiumA Phoenix-based nonprofit medical research foundation, the IGC willspearhead genome-related research with partnering medical centersand research institutions nationally and internationally. It will releaseits findings to the public, allowing researchers around the world unre-stricted access to all data via the Internet.

Translation Genomics InstituteTGen is an Arizona-based research organization that is a partnershipamong the State of Arizona, Arizona State University, Northern ArizonaUniversity and the University of Arizona.

world, the foreign policy world. TheHerberger Theater Center was a consor-tia.”

“It became just sort of instantly clear tome that the only way to take advantage ofthe current revolution in genomics was tocreate a nonprofit entity that would be apartnership between industry and academiaand, in effect, the clinicians who treatpatients. It started with cancer, but wequickly realized that genomics would bene-fit anyone with a complex disease.”

“Why will it be good for Arizona? Whywill it be good for law firms? First of all, weare going to see a new category of industryhere: bioscience. Opening the doors tobioindustry in Arizona could result in high-er-paying jobs, highly skilled workers andnew business. Intellectual capital is moreimportant than financial capital becauseintellectual capital generates new ideas.Knowledge-based industry—that’s whatgenomics offers Arizona.”

To Mallery, it’s all in a day’s work. “Yousee, that’s what lawyering should be.Lawyers transcend the boxes. We’re thearchitects who can design new structuresto carry out new ventures. And we are theones who understand the whole system,how we can bring people together and dosomething original. Frankly, I think thatshould be an important part not only ofthe curriculum of law school, but also partof the profession’s mission.”

Continuing plans for the IGC projectinclude a landmark summit for top scien-tists and top venture capitalists to be heldin Phoenix in October. “There are threephases to this strategy if it is going to workin Arizona,” says Mallery. “First, we needto get the critical mass that was alreadyhere more organized. We had great expec-tations of ASU, U of A, NAU, MayoClinic, Barrow and the other hospitals.There is great expertise here in Arizona.

“A database here gives us an interna-tional place or provenance, which I thinkwill attract the intellectual capital that willenable us to follow the example of SanDiego.”

That may be a tall order, given SanDiego’s powerhouse status as a biosciencecenter; other leaders are Atlanta, Houston,Bethesda, Md., Palo Alto and Los Angeles.

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“That’s the sequence. You start withthe science, you develop the industry andmore industry is created from some of thespin-off ideas because you’ve got the capi-tal there. So you start with IGC as theresearch platform. TGen is the researcheffort, and now we need to get our acttogether with capital formation.

“That’s where I’m going now. I’m nota scientist, but I am interested in helpingform capital here in Arizona. And thatmeans we can keep some of these greatideas here for commercial developmentfor the benefit of the value-added peopleand jobs that they bring to Arizona.”

Even at age 65, when many lawyers arelooking forward to a well-deserved andhealthy diet of R&R, Mallery is commit-ted to seeing his genomics infant throughto adulthood. “I love my work. I neverplan on retiring. I love the practice oflaw.”

“I am thankful that I have the oppor-tunity to serve people like Jeff Trent andDan Van Hoff. I consider this to be aserendipitous, God-given opportunity.That means a lot to me.”

After his last gulp of grapefruit juiceand a few minutes of small talk in hisoffice, Dick Mallery reaches into his deskdrawer and with an audible, “Aha! Therethey are!” pulls out a pair of compactblack binoculars. “They’ll break groundsometime next year,” he says, pointing tothe future site of the IGC that lies in clearview of his corner-office window. “I hadan east-facing office when I was in BankOne, and I watched the Herberger beingbuilt.”

He turns toward the site with thebinoculars and proudly continues, “Theseare the same binoculars, and I’m going towatch this thing come up, too.”

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• Founding Chair, Board of Directors,The International GenomicsConsortium (2000-present)

• Partner, Executive CommitteeMember, Snell & Wilmer

• Stanford Law School (J.D., 1963)

• Cornell University (M.A., 1960)

• DePauw University (B.A., 1959)

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