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Warner Mendenhall, an Ohio attorney who became one of the nation’s most prominent legal opponents of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and pandemic-era restrictions, died Monday after battling colon cancer. He was 64.
Over a decades-long legal career, Mendenhall also built a national reputation representing whistleblowers and exposing government fraud.
Attorneys, activists and public figures who worked alongside him in the years following the pandemic remembered him as a force both in and out of the courtroom.
“CHD grieves for the loss of Warner Mendenhall. He was a man of integrity and kindness who made a difference in the fight for truth and justice about COVID,” said Children’s Health Defense (CHD) CEO Mary Holland.
Mendenhall’s pandemic-related work ranged from lawsuits challenging vaccine mandates at public universities to whistleblower cases involving vaccine safety reporting and clinical trial practices.
He also represented the family of Grace Schara, a Wisconsin teenager with Down syndrome whose death became the focus of a closely watched legal challenge to hospital COVID-19 treatment protocols.
Holland said Mendenhall’s legacy lives on through the people and organizations he helped build and inspire, including Freedom Counsel, the nationwide legal network he co-founded to connect attorneys, experts and citizens advocating for medical freedom and constitutional rights.
The organization “is continuing to make an important difference in the cause of freedom,” Holland said.
‘The truth in the end will win’
No College Mandates co-founder Lucia Sinatra called Mendenhall “the single greatest connector of health freedom warriors that our movement has ever seen.”
Sinatra tied “every bit of progress” her organization has made to his encouragement, support, conversations and connections. “I will forever honor him for being the person above all others who believed in our work and who helped elevate our resources to reach as many families as we could,” she told The Defender.
Mendenhall became a familiar figure among medical freedom advocates, appearing at conferences, on podcasts and in documentaries. In an interview in “Vaxxed 3,” he urged people to “pay attention, love your families, believe your eyes and turn the TV off.”
He praised the role independent journalism played in challenging official COVID-19 narratives, arguing that alternative outlets were providing “more accurate information” and “more truthful information.”
“The media is dying. We don’t trust the mainstream media,” Mendenhall said in the film. “This is a free country. They can say what they want. Guess what? We can say what we want, too. … The truth in the end will win.”
‘He gave so many of us the wings to fight’
Supporters pointed to Mendenhall’s willingness to take cases that many larger firms would not.
“During COVID-19, when Americans were fired, expelled, silenced and coerced, Warner Mendenhall took the cases others wouldn’t,” Sinatra wrote earlier this year. “He fought hospitals, universities, corporations and government-backed mandates, often pro bono, all to defend bodily autonomy, informed consent and basic constitutional freedoms.”
Sinatra said Mendenhall’s lawsuits and advocacy helped influence policy debates at both the state and federal levels and gave many activists the confidence to continue their work. “He gave so many of us the wings to fight these battles,” she said.
Nurse and whistleblower Jodi O’Malley said on Substack that Mendenhall brought the same commitment to the individuals he represented.
O’Malley recalled that when Mendenhall agreed to assist as co-counsel in litigation related to her whistleblower disclosures, he spent as much time discussing her motivations as he did the legal details of the case.
“He wanted to understand the calling behind it, the why,” O’Malley said.
She described Mendenhall as “a man on mission from God” whose work “was not about ego, recognition, or personal gain.”
“Warner wasn’t a man waiting on the world to change,” she said. “He had a hand in changing it.”
Attorney Sujata S. Gibson recalled a conversation with Mendenhall at a CHD conference in 2022, where they discussed the difficulties in connecting attorneys and other professionals working on pandemic-related legal challenges and civil-liberties issues.
“Warner and I talked about the need for lawyers in the medical freedom movement to share knowledge, build relationships and support one another,” she said. “Then, seemingly overnight, he built Freedom Counsel into a national network, creating space for collaboration, strategy, fellowship and courage.”
“That was Warner,” Gibson said. “He did not just talk about what was needed. He made it happen.”
Mendenhall found ‘calling’ in fighting for underdogs
While widely known for his COVID-19-era advocacy, Mendenhall’s legal career was built over decades of litigation involving whistleblowers, fraud and government accountability.
Born Feb. 24, 1962, in Durham, North Carolina, he earned a master’s degree in political science from Kent State University and served on the Akron City Council.
“I have been active politically all my life,” Mendenhall wrote on his law firm’s website. “Beginning with two terms on Akron City Council in the early 1990s, I have helped citizens fight corruption and the abuse of power of local governments throughout Ohio.”
He said frustrations with city legal officials persuaded him to attend law school.
“During my time on the city council, I felt that the city law department was not giving me accurate answers so I went to law school,” he wrote.
After graduating from the University of Akron School of Law in 1998 and becoming licensed in Ohio, Mendenhall won cases exposing block grant fraud and defending charter amendments in Akron.
“I knew that I had found my calling,” he wrote.
Years later, colleagues would describe that sense of mission as one of Mendenhall’s defining characteristics. O’Malley said Mendenhall approached his work with a conviction that transcended legal victories, believing he had been called to serve causes larger than himself.
That calling became the foundation of the Mendenhall Law Group, a mission-oriented firm based in Akron with an additional office in Boston.
Through False Claims Act litigation, Mendenhall represented whistleblowers who exposed fraud involving Medicare, Medicaid, defense contracting and federal grants, helping recover millions of dollars for U.S. taxpayers.
“I’ve been building a mission-oriented practice to hold local, state government, and corporations accountable,” he said on his firm’s website. “Anchored by a passion for helping to give ordinary people the power to stand up to government abuses, corporate fraud, and bank malfeasance.”
‘He advocated for the outcast, the underdog, the ordinary person’
Friends and colleagues remembered Mendenhall as much for his personality as for his legal accomplishments.
“Warner Mendenhall was my friend and colleague, and I am heartbroken by his passing,” Gibson said. “Warner had a rare gift for making everyone around him feel special, valued and important. He was brilliant, driven and extraordinarily effective, but also humble, kind and deeply generous with his time,” she said.
Kim Mack Rosenberg, CHD general counsel, described him as “a person of strong convictions” whose dedication to clients and freedom-related causes “was unwavering.”
“He made things happen when he saw a need,” she said. “Warner was not only a gifted attorney but a committed family man and a friend to many. My deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. May he rest in peace.”
Attorney Robert Barnes remembered Mendenhall’s energy and determination.
“Warner walked in the room like a hurricane, bringing boundless energy, limitless hope, and a bounty of smiles and laughs,” Barnes said. He added:
“He advocated for the outcast, the underdog, the ordinary person, and never blinked at the power of those he went up against, doing it all cheerfully with a heart full of hope and a mind determined to prevail, no matter the odds. To all lawyers who wish to do a little justice in the world, there are few better examples than Warner Mendenhall. Rest in peace, brother.”
Attorney Jeremy L. Friedman said Mendenhall helped shape a broader movement among attorneys and advocates working on pandemic-related legal issues.
“Warner’s life and work is an inspiration to so many,” Friedman said. “In his cases, his conferences and his interactions, he stood for the principles that mean the most: health, freedom, honesty and justice. He was there for those causes and for all of us, and it was because of him that we have coalesced behind a movement. That legacy will live on.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) also paid tribute, writing on X, “My sincere condolences to the family and friends of attorney Warner Mendenhall. He was a champion for medical freedom and a true advocate for the COVID injection injured.”
Attorney Ray Flores said Mendenhall’s impact would continue long after his death.
“Today, I celebrate Warner Mendenhall’s lasting legacy,” Flores said. “Since 2020, he set the standard for balancing the challenges of managing a law practice while organizing legal activism. Without his great contributions, the health freedom movement would not be as strong.”
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‘A lifetime of service to those who needed a voice and a champion’
Earlier this year, after publicly revealing his cancer diagnosis, Mendenhall reflected on what the illness had taught him.
“Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and support,” Mendenhall wrote on X on Feb. 3. “I am learning what it is like to have your health ripped away.”
“Cancer is gifting me understanding of my very ill clients and friends and reflection on my priorities in life,” he continued. “I am grateful for the journey and looking forward to wherever I end up. God bless you all.”
Activist Brian Ward posted news of Mendenhall’s death on X on Monday, saying Mendenhall died surrounded by family.
“Attorney Warner Mendenhall passed away this morning, surrounded by his family, who loved him much, and based on my conversations with him, he loved them more than anything else on earth,” Ward wrote. “He will be missed by all, not only for his advocacy but also for his warmth and compassion.”
For many who knew him, Mendenhall’s legacy will rest not only in the lawsuits he won, but in the movement he helped build and the people he inspired along the way.
His work will continue “through the many people he connected, encouraged and inspired — not only in this movement, but through a lifetime of service to those who needed a voice and a champion,” Gibson said.
Watch Mendenhall in a clip from ‘Vaxxed 3’ here:
- Medical Freedom Warrior in ‘Fight of His Life’ After Cancer Diagnosis
- ‘Heartbreaking’: Jury Sides With Hospital in 2021 Death of 19-Year-Old Admitted for COVID
- Jury Hears Conflicting Testimony in Trial Alleging Hospital’s Actions — Not COVID — Caused Teen’s Death
- Whistleblower Will Appeal After Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit Alleging Fraud in Pfizer COVID Vaccine Trials
- Employee Sues Hospital That Fired Her for Reporting COVID Vaccine Injuries to VAERS
- University of California COVID Vaccine Lawsuit Moves Forward, Despite Setback
- How the Government Is Trying to Silence a COVID Vaccine Whistleblower
