(San Francisco, CA) - Mary E. Alexander, San Francisco consumer attorney and president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, concludes their national convention in San Francisco July 23, including 2000 trial lawyers, "to strengthen the fight for consumer rights under attack by Congress and the White House."

She will address the closing of the convention and will be available to media: Reception/availability 6 PM Wed., July 23 and Address/Availability at 8 PM. The events occur at the San Francisco Hilton, 333 O’Farrell Street, Grand Ballrooms A & B.

The convention has been a major draw for powerful political leaders and presidential candidates speaking on the consumer legal battle: Senator John Kerry, Senator John Edwards, Rep. Dick Gephardt, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Barbara Boxer, James Carville, Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Mayor Willie Brown.

Alexander asserted, "Consumer rights are under attack in the Congress and the White House." She chastises Senate and House bills to cap damages and block class action lawsuits, as well as "arbitrary bashing of lawyers", as "good for raising donations from corporate interests but doing no one any good." In an op-ed this week in the San Jose Mercury News, Alexander points out that President Bush has made over 50 attacks against trial lawyers in speeches since taking office. She asserts that the real agenda of the critics is to "reward the insurance industry and corporations with higher profits and less accountability and prohibit juries of regular Americans from holding harmful interests accountable."

The Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) has 60,000 members. Alexander stated that the convention would work "to strengthen the fight against the Administration’s and Congress’ anti-consumer actions, especially concerning medical malpractice rights, and class action lawsuits against major malfeasant corporations like Enron and Global Crossing, who are almost unaccountable on issues from pensions to pollution."

Alexander said that her first husband worked in a civil engineering lab testing asphalt road samples with pure benzene. When she attended UC Berkeley School of Public Health, she attended a lecture on the link between benzene and leukemia. Her husband died of leukemia, a motivating factor in her decision to "save American workers", become an attorney, and "use a courtroom to be effective."