Rick Mulloy

In many respects, Rick Mulloy had the quintessential UC San Diego experience. As a Southern California kid, he started at the university in 1991 as a Revelle student and a political science and history major. His future wife, Andrea, also was an alumna, though they did not meet on campus.

A good part of Rick’s college career was defined on the Main Gym hardwood and he remains in a different kind of court today—as a trial lawyer in San Diego for the firm DLA Piper. While Rick graduated with a determination to launch straight into law school, which he attended at UC Berkeley, he always had an eye on returning to San Diego. Enter the law firm Gray Cary (now DLA Piper today), which recruited Rick straight from law school and Rick’s career took off in the high stakes environment of patent litigation.

A resident of Carmel Valley, Rick remains close friends with several other Tritons. “People that go to UC San Diego are people who relish being around different people and hearing many perspectives,” Rick says, in trying to define the connective tissue among alumni. “They are people who want to push themselves and do well.”

Rick certainly has accomplished this professionally. Some of his key achievements include representing and defending Hewlett Packard on inkjet printing patents and representing Qualcomm’s wireless communication technology in litigation. UC San Diego came into play again for Rick much later in life as his career evolved into representing pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and Rick found himself taking biology courses on the campus to brush up on his skill sets. This evolution fuels one of Rick’s primary pieces of advice to students and young alumni. “I encourage them to get out of their comfort zone and meet new people and try new things,” he says. “Getting involved in things you otherwise would not is how people grow in life.”

Rick continues to remain involved at UC San Diego while being an established attorney and family man (he and his wife have 5-year old triplets). Two years ago, he visited campus to give a keynote presentation at the Rady School of Management on patent monetization, and he looks to find other ways to volunteer and give back. “It’s a difficult time for our public school system in California, from the elementary schools my kids attend up through the UC system,” he says. “I think it’s important that people who have benefitted from the education provided by that system continue to put something back into it however they can.”