Mary E. Alexander 

Mary E. Alexander has been a prominent tort plaintiffs’ attorney for 40 years, including terms as president of the Consumer Attorneys of California and of the national trial lawyers bar group, the American Association for Justice. She has scored big wins and settlements in cases involving environmental disasters, high-profile fires, toxic torts, catastrophic factory injuries and auto accidents.

Lately, she is particularly focused on representing survivors of sexual abuse, including about 100 clients across the state who are suing Catholic Church dioceses. A few years ago, Alexander helped set up the coordination of such cases from the northern half of the state. Northern California Clergy Abuse Cases, JCCP 5108 (Alameda Super. Ct., filed July 1, 2020).

And earlier this year, a client she represents was named to the unsecured creditors committee in the Diocese of Santa Rosa’s new bankruptcy. In re: The Roman Catholic Bishop of Santa Rosa, 1:23-bk-10113 (Bankr. N.D. Cal., filed March 13, 2023).

Alexander noted that Oakland’s diocese also filed for bankruptcy protection recently and that Sacramento’s is considering it. “Some people believe the whole state is going to be in bankruptcy eventually,” she said.

Those aren’t her only sexual assault cases. She is representing at least seven people claiming they were abused by a Vacaville oral surgeon “in the chair, while they were awake.”

Alexander has other clients who are suing massage therapists and their employers over alleged inappropriate contact, including several who were employed by Massage Envy franchisees and others working in high-end hotel spas.

“They’re there for some therapy,” she said of her clients. “To be sexually assaulted in that environment is very upsetting.”

Alexander handles many other types of torts as well, and last year brought in several seven-figure settlements. In a products liability case, she represented a vineyard worker who suffered traumatic brain injuries when a very large, mobile light fell on the client’s head during a nighttime harvest.

In another, she represented a woman whose scalp was ripped off by a machine that shapes glass while she was working alone at night. “It’s hard to believe [there are still] machines without guards, but I see it a lot in my business.”

And earlier last year, she achieved a $6 million settlement for two very young children without filing a lawsuit. The kids were riding in the back seat when a drunken driver crashed into their car and killed both parents. A judge approved the settlement in Afzili v. Poleti, PR2022-0099 (Yolo Super. Ct., filed May 6, 2022).

“I tell my staff every holiday party that we’re so fortunate to be able to make a living and help people,” Alexander said.

— Don DeBenedictis