Mary Alexander

San Francisco

Personal Injury

Personal injury cases aren't just a standard car crash anymore. Just ask Mary Alexander, who has a full caseload of sexual abuse victims, fire deaths and clients with cancer from hazardous materials.

"My work in sexual abuse cases is really expanding, and that's in several areas. One is the massage sex abuse cases and where women are molested by the massage therapist," Alexander said. "Another area that I've been involved with is the clergy [sexual] abuse cases. One by one, the dioceses are filing for bankruptcy." She also pursues cases against schools for sexual assault of children by employees.

Many of the massage cases were settled without filing a complaint because the incidents occurred in upscale hotels and spas that didn't want bad publicity.

Her verdicts have doled out hefty damages, up to $1.15 billion for a 20-year class action lawsuit over lead paint hazards in 10 counties. The case was eventually settled for $305 million against several paint companies.

Alexander credits her keen eye to working as a scientist before becoming a lawyer. So she knew all about toxins like lead and benzene, the latter alleged to have caused cancer in clients who worked with solvents containing the agent. Her team had a $21 million verdict in Contra Costa County.

"I worked in a laboratory as a toxicologist and was a director at Stanford Research Institute in occupational and environmental health," she said. "When I went to law school, the toxic cases were right in my wheelhouse. And so the benzene cases have become a big part of my practice."

One of her most high-profile battles has been against numerous individuals, businesses and the city of Oakland for the 2016 Ghost Ship fire, which killed 36 people during a concert held in a dilapidated warehouse. In Re Ghost Ship Fire Litigation, RG16843631 (Alam. Sup. Ct., filed Dec. 23, 2016).

Three years ago, the case settled with Oakland for $32.7 million and continues to go after the assets of the owner of the Ghost Ship building.

"Oakland had hundreds of contacts with the Ghost Ship over more than two years by police and firemen who knew that people lived there but turned a blind eye," she said. "The Ghost Ship building itself sold ... It's so fitting that there will be a brand new affordable housing building where the Ghost Ship was. It came about because people couldn't afford to live elsewhere."

-Tori Richards