Litigation
Jun. 15, 2002
Hurdling the Obstacles
Top 30 Women Litiagtors - Mary E. Alexander - Next month, San Francisco attorney Mary E. Alexander will take over as president of the 60,000-member American Trial Lawyers Association.
Mary E. Alexander
Next month, San Francisco attorney Mary E. Alexander will take over as president of the 60,000-member American Trial Lawyers Association.
For detractors who label plaintiffs' attorneys ambulance chasers, the 54-year-old points to the organization's recent effort to help victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by offering them free legal advice on how to collect from the federal compensation fund.
"What we're doing to help these people is what we're doing every day," Alexander of the Bay Area's Alexander & Associates says.
Last year, Themis Capital Corp., an outfit that finances mass tort cases across the country, honored her as Trial Lawyer of the Year. In 1996, she served as president of the Consumer Attorneys of California.
Despite her talents, some opposing counsel haven't taken her seriously because of her gender.
"I've had to prove myself frequently," the Chicago native says.
She relies on the jury as "a great equalizer."
The case that put her on the map came in 1990, when she won a record Fresno County $13.3 million judgment against a company that ran a concession that rented a faulty bike to a woman in Yosemite. The woman was paralyzed from the neck down when her brakes failed and she smashed into a tree.
Alexander has quieted the doubters by proving herself.
"I think things are definitely improving," she says.
Eron Yehuda
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