Dordick Law Corporation

Thirty-five years ago, Gary A. Dordick went straight from high school to law school, then parlayed a job in a lawyer's file room into the highly successful personal injury practice he now oversees. Even during the challenges of the pandemic years, he said, he attained verdicts or settlements totaling more than $50 million.

"I started in a tiny rental in an old building on Beverly Drive. I looked pretty young, and I figured if I was in an ild building, clients would trust me more," he said. At first, it was just Dordick and his wife, who worked as a paralegal at a large firm but moonlighted for her husband, who acknowledged, "I couldn't afford to hire her." Today she's attending law school even as she works as Dordick Law Corp.'s CFO. Three of Dordick's children are lawyers at the 15-attorney firm.

Dordick is expanding his empire by planning to open a new outpost in Riverside. "I like the judges and the courthouses in the Inland Empire, and I don't like being viewed there as just a Beverly Hills lawyer," he said. Due to an influx of new clients. he's just hired two more lawyers and four law clerks. When the disgraced Thomas V. Girardi's firm imploded. Dordick bought his Wilshire Avenue building. "We continue to exorcise the demons there," he said. And work continues on a new headquarters in Beverly Hills, set to open in late 2023.

In early October, Dordick persuaded a San Bernardino County jury - following a five-week trial - to find the California Department of Transportation 50% liable in the catastrophic injury acse of a motorcyclist who lost a lef above the knee while speeding across the yellow line in a work zone on a mountain road.

The trial was set to resume for the damages phase. "We'll be asking in the $40 million range," Dordick said.

"Cal Trans and its contractors refused to even consider a settlement or to consider shared liability, but that's what the jury system is for,""Dordick said. 'They were counting on the belief that most jurors hate motorcyclists. We showed they failed to have an adequate traffic safety plan in place with proper signage and proper flaggers while they fixed a dangerous roadway. The jurors really didn't like that their experts couldn't produce a lot of important missing documents. I could sense the jury was just in disbelief." Wight v. California Dept. of Transportation et al., CIVDS1718033 (S. Bernardino Co. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 18, 2017)."

Earlier this summer, Dordick persuaded a Chatsworth jury to award $4.9 million to a 12-year-old boy who suffered massive brain damage in a roadway accident. Dordick said the boy was about to lose his home and go into foster care, so the verdict saved the household's finances and kept the family intact. Gutierrez v. Republic Master Chefs, 21STCV21766 (LA. Super. Ct. filed June 10, 2021).

Along with obtaining an imposing number of verdicts and settlements, Dordick finds time to tape legal affairs podcasts and to conduct his annual trial college in Cabo San Lucas with proceeds to cancer research. "I've been practicing now for about 35 years, and I had some great mentors and teachers help me better represent my clients, and I think all of us have an obligation to give back, to share what we've learned through hard lessons to help other lawyers be more effective," he said.

Dordick added: "We achieve such success because I sacrifice 700% of myself. I work from 6 a.m. to 70 p.m. seven days a week. I'm committed to these cases - what we do is vital because people trust me with their lives."