Mary Alexander Named Best Lawyer for 5th Year in a Row
August 15, 2019 – San Francisco, CA – Mary Alexander was named a Best Lawyer for the 5th year in a row by Best Lawyers in America for her work in personal injury litigation. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal profession.
Ms. Alexander has had an impressive year, obtaining headline-grabbing results on cases throughout California.
Mary Alexander was a lead attorney in the lead paint case, which settled for $305 million on behalf of ten California counties against several paint companies involved in the nearly 20-year lawsuit over lead paint in California. Ms. Alexander worked on this case for its entirety with the settlement ending two decades of litigation, which included a $1.5 billion bench verdict. The lawsuit was initially filed in 2000, and soon 10 California local governments joined in bringing a “public nuisance” suit against the companies that once sold lead paint, arguing that lead is a proven toxin causing brain damage in children. The suit sought to hold the paint companies responsible to pay for the cleanup. A trial court in Santa Clara County agreed, ordering the companies to pay more than a billion dollars for the cleanup; subsequent appeal court rulings limited their liability to homes built before 1951. In San Francisco alone, over two thirds (68 percent) of homes were built before 1951, which is more than 235,000 residential units. At least 22,000 housing units in San Francisco that are occupied by low- and moderate-income families are believed to have lead-based paint hazards.
Mary Alexander obtained a $21.4 million jury verdict on behalf of the families of two brothers who died of cancer as a result of their exposure to the known cancer-causing chemical benzene. The trial lasted over four weeks with the jury deliberating for roughly 3 days. The families of Gary Eaves and his brother Randy Eaves filed a lawsuit against Union Oil which made the benzene-containing rubber solvent the brothers regularly worked with at their jobs in a tire manufacturing plant. The brothers were longtime employees of the plant and exposed to large amounts of benzene in their work. Gary was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in June of 2013 at the age of just 59. Randy was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in June of 2016 also at the age of 59. Union Oil was accused of failing to warn Gary or Randy of the potential dangers of benzene exposure. The jury sided with the plaintiffs who contended the oil company knew the solvents they sold contained benzene. The plaintiffs also contended the defendant knew, or should have known, that benzene exposure was extremely hazardous and cancer-causing.
The recognition from Best Lawyers is just the latest honor Ms. Alexander has received. She’s been recognized by the California Daily Journal as one of the Top 30 Plaintiff Lawyers in California and one of the Top Women Lawyers in California. She’s been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Plaintiff Trailblazer and is regularly honored by Super Lawyers as one of the Top Women Lawyers in San Francisco.
