Mary E. Alexander

With a long career marked by multi-million-dollar verdicts in catastrophic personal injury and premises and product liability cases, Alexander was uniquely positioned to meet legal challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a class action, she represents 60 passengers of the Grand Princess cruise ship who claim that staff did not take proper precautions in cleaning and sanitizing the ship between voyages and did not effectively screen or test existing or new passengers bound for Hawaii from California in the early days of the pandemic. Archer v. Carnival Corp., 3:20-cv-02381 (N.D. Cal., filed April 8, 2020).

“The Death on the High Seas Act really limits what someone who loses a loved one can recover. It’s very unusual, very different than California law,” Alexander said. “Both maritime and admiralty are different, with ins and outs compared with state law. You have to wind your way through all that. There are some limitations that are very unfortunate for people who have suffered loss of a loved one or suffered a personal injury.”

But Alexander has shown that she can take on tough cases and win, even if the process takes years. She successfully represented 10 California counties in a 19-year battle with paint manufacturers by achieving a landmark $1.15 billion bench verdict requiring former producers of lead-based paint to pay for cleanup associated with the toxic product. The award is to go toward cleaning up nearly two-thirds of homes built before 1951 in San Francisco, which totals about 257,000. County of Santa Clara v. Atlantic Richfield Co., CV-788657 (Santa Clara Super. Ct., filed March 23, 2000).

“After a 19-year battle, from the time we filed until the time it was finally done, we won,” Alexander said. “The verdict resulted in monies to remove paint from homes and protect children. Lead is particularly toxic to children under the age of 5, especially when they’re crawling around on the floor breathing in dust from paint that’s failed or chewing on windowsills.”

Alexander holds a masters degree in public health and had studied lead poisoning.

In the trial, she said, “I put on public health experts, epidemiologists, physicians who had studied the effects of lead on children and adults. It was really right up the alley of my scientific background before I became a lawyer.”

— Nick Kipley