Attorney Courtney Hylton was only 19 when she sat beside her father, Mike, as he boldly testified before the National Institute of Health in 1994 about his experience with hemophilia and contaminated blood products. At one point, he handed her his prepared testimony to continue reading as he proceeded to infuse himself with the blood-clotting protein Factor VIII as the Congressional committee gaped.

“People freaked out,” recalls Hylton.

It was a seminal moment in her life. Through witnessing her father’s formidable, life-long battle with hemophilia, a genetic bleeding disorder in which the blood does not clot properly, a spirit of advocacy became an essential aspect of Hylton’s character.

“This is where I get my die-on-the-hill attitude,” she says. “It really shaped who I am. Believe in what you believe in and stand up for it and fight your way through it.”

In spite of contracting HIV — the retrovirus that causes AIDS — from contaminated blood product in the early 1980s and enduring compounding health issues and numerous operations to fuse deteriorating joints, her father, whom doctors had not expected to live beyond the age of 20, dedicated himself to fighting for improved care for hemophiliacs. It seems likely he saw a similar fighting nature in his stubborn oldest child.

“Even from a young age, my dad always said, ‘you’re going to be a lawyer’,” says Hylton. “Who knows, if his life had been different maybe he would have been a lawyer.”