Michelle J. Dordick 

Michelle J. Dordick is an associate attorney at Dordick Law Corporation. Her father, Gary A. Dordick, founded the plaintiff-side personal injury boutique in 1987 and has grown it into a 13-attorney powerhouse where three of his children are lawyers and where his wife, the firm’s longtime CEO, has graduated from law school and is studying for the bar exam..

Michelle is the eldest of the Dordick kids. “Dad’s a lawyer, all his friends are lawyers. So growing up, it was hard to avoid the law as a calling, though we have two younger siblings who escaped,” she said.

She studied law at Fordham University School of Law in New York, then practiced family law in Los Angeles for three years before making the move to join the family firm.

“I told him I was comfortable with the Family Code, but I wanted hands-on litigation — less writing, more doing, more depos, more face time with judges. Dad told me the best of the best are those who take chances and get better over time.”

For the first case, she tried with her father and sister Taylor, Michelle Dordick didn’t do badly: The trio obtained a $2.28 billion jury verdict for a woman who was repeatedly raped by her stepfather throughout her childhood, starting at age five. Jane Doe v. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, CVR12100419 (Riverside Co. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 28, 2021).

Shortly before the three-day trial —at which the stepfather refused to appear—Dordick settled with the Morman Church for $1 million. Church officials had learned of the abuse at a time when the law did not mandate that they report it; instead, they talked her out of calling the police. “They made matters worse for her,” Michelle Dordick said.

The huge sum against the stepfather is uncollectable, but that wasn’t the point. Michelle Dordick had long conversations with the woman, who is now in her forties.

“She became comfortable with us in dealing with such a sensitive subject,” Michelle Dordick said. “She had never addressed or been heard on what happened. She felt validated by having 12 jurors understand her and give her the big award. It was an incredible feeling helping that client get that kind of closure.”

Michelle Dordick has several more sexual assault cases in her pipeline. One involves a hotel’s masseuse who assaulted two women. Another concerns a rape by an Uber driver. A third is against a school district whose soccer coach had sexual relations with three students.

“It’s important for me to fight for these women and give them the opportunity to tell their stories,” Michelle Dordick said.

–John Roemer