Mary A. Alexander

Personal Injury, Sexual Abuse

San Francisco

Mary Alexander has been a prominent trial lawyer for injured plaintiffs for many years. She secured a $32.7 million settlement from Oakland in 2016 over the "Ghost Ship" warehouse fire. In 2019, she won a $21.4 million jury verdict for brothers who died from exposure to benzene. That same year, she was part of the team that landed a $305 million settlement -- following a $1.15 billion verdict -- over toxic paint in 10 California cities and counties.

She also has served as the president of the national American Association for Justice, the Consumer Attorneys of California and the National Crime Victims Bar Association.

These days, Alexander is concentrating on representing young victims of sexual abuse. The cases present some real challenges, she said.

Most recently, she has been working against the May 31 deadline to file claims in the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy on behalf of some 75 men who were abused years, or decades, before. The requirements are difficult, she said. "They're not just taking the boys' word for it" even though "it's always true." In re Boy Scouts of America, 20-bk-10343 (Bankr. D. Del., filed Feb 18, 2020).

She and her team must track down evidence that their clients were scouts, including old newspaper articles. "Sometimes we can even find pictures of our clients or the predators" on the internet, Alexander said. "I am very proud of ... some of the creative work that we did."

This past spring, Alexander settled two abuse cases against school districts. Those are difficult cases because public entities have special immunities and unusual insurance, she said. And "they think that, well, it was the teacher that did it and how are we supposed to know?"

In one of the cases, she and co-counsel obtained $3.45 million from the Elk Grove school district on behalf of a boy who was molested in a preschool bathroom by a teacher's aide. Another school district previously had fired the aide for inappropriate tickling of children, but Elk Grove never checked his references.

"That case was extremely hard fought," she said. During the litigation, the district "never admitted that it even happened," instead claiming "the mother made it up, put this in the kid's mind."

Alexander obtained a $4.9 million settlement for two girls who had been repeatedly molested by their middle school Spanish teacher. The teacher was a woman, "which is unusual and made it more difficult ... but there were red flags that they should have seen," she said. Jane Doe v. Chico Unified School District, 21CV00762 (Butte Super. Ct., filed March 29, 2021).

Alexander is also representing victims of assaults committed in night clubs, including one growing out of a stabbing at the club in Pomona and another from a shooting at a club in Stockton.

She likes doing those cases because "you can affect change with lawsuits. So that other places... know that they really should be having better security or they're going to be held accountable."

-- Don DeBenedictis