Georgia trial lawyer Tommy Malone of the Malone Law Office died Tuesday at his Palm Beach, Florida, home “after a long and courageous battle with cancer that he never quit fighting,” his family said. He was 76.

An adversary once called him “the John Wayne of litigation.” He represented families hurt by “preventable disasters” in hospitals, on the highway and in the air. He wasn’t afraid of losing in court and in fact learned his best lessons from it, Malone himself had said.