Michael Alder

“My job is to restore people’s faith in our jury system. Our country’s founding fathers devised a way to protect the little guy from big business or anyone else who was in a position of power and had the ability to exploit it, and wrote that into our Constitution. They realized that the right to a trial by a jury of twelve objective people who heard all the facts would result in justice being served the vast majority of the time, and would guarantee average Americans who are wronged a fighting chance against the big guys. Runaway juries are not this country’s problem right now – runaway corporations and insurance companies who leave our citizens high and dry, while their executives get rich in the process, are our current nightmare. My job is to educate people about that fact, just as the insurance companies and big corporations are spending tens of millions of dollars to distribute misinformation about our justice system.”

Mike Alder is the owner and Senior Trial Attorney of AlderLaw and is one of the top trial attorneys in California, consistently obtaining record verdicts and settlements for his clients. Mr. Alder has repeatedly been recognized for his accomplishments as a trial lawyer and for the verdicts and settlements he obtains for his clients. In 2014, he received the Clay Award and was named the personal injury “California Attorney of the Year” by California Lawyer. Mr. Alder is the only attorney in the country to ever have 3 verdicts listed in Verdict Search’s “Top 100 Verdicts” of the year. He achieved this accomplishment in 2011 when he obtained the largest personal injury verdict in Ventura County history ($39.4 million); the largest personal injury verdict in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana history ($29.1 million); and a breach of contract award with punitive damages in Los Angeles County ($33 million). Mr. Alder has been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) since 2003. He was the youngest lawyer to ever be named Consumer Attorney Association of Los Angeles’ (CAALA) “Trial Lawyer of the Year.” Mr. Alder is a 3-time nominee for California’s Trial Lawyer of the Year and is one of the youngest recipients of Daily Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers in California (2011). In 2005, he was declared one of the Daily Journal’s Top 20 under 40.

At AlderLaw, Mr. Alder has established a unique formula for success where a team of lawyers, paralegals, and litigation assistants vigorously pursue all cases on behalf of his clients; however, Mr. Alder maintains ultimate control over every case at AlderLaw, from small day-to-day decisions to trying the case to a jury when necessary. This formula has permitted AlderLaw to grow in size while still allowing Mr. Alder to be personally involved in each and every case.

Mr. Alder is a past president of CAALA and is a well sought after speaker at seminars on trial strategy and has published numerous articles regarding same.  Mr. Alder has a long history of supporting other trial attorneys. Mr. Alder maintains a 9,000 deposition database and an expert witness directory and provides information at no charge to any trial lawyer requesting it. Mr. Alder also created the “Warrior Fund” to serve as a free funding sponsor to make sure new attorneys have the resources necessary to pursue cases against well-funded insurance companies. In addition, Mr. Alder founded, and will be the 2018 President of Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Charities, which has been extremely successful in raising money to support causes throughout Southern California focusing on issues related to education, children, battered women and homelessness. He has served as a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court Bench/Bar Committee.

A native of Louisiana, Mr. Alder received his undergraduate and law degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Following a clerkship with the Hon. Lenore Prather, the presiding justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, Mr. Alder moved to Los Angeles and began practicing law and representing plaintiffs who needed a strong advocate for their case. He is also a Member of the Board of the non-profit Inner City Law Center, dedicated to helping the homeless and veterans.