(San Francisco, CA) – San Francisco consumer attorney Mary Alexander, the President-Elect of the influential Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), announced today that she is forming a San Francisco law firm which she will head.  Over the past several weeks, in her ATLA capacity, Alexander helped develop a compensation plan and fund for victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks “so that they would not be further victimized by lawsuits,” according to Alexander.   She also supported and helped design a moratorium of lawsuits against victims and their families and an arrangement of free legal services for all 7000 families.

     Alexander said, “The victims of the terrorist suicide airplane bombings of the World Trade Center Towers have suffered the worst conceivable tragedy, a virtually unfathomable horror that we pray never will be repeated in our nation.  The last thing any of us wanted is that these victims and their families face further suffering by having to confront lawsuits.  The new fund for victims and the lawsuit moratorium are the least that America and my national trial lawyers’ association could do, and we are grateful that this effort was successful.”

    Alexander has a record of successful consumer advocacy.  Her victories include a record verdict of $13.3 million in a bicycle product liability case, a $2.2 million jury verdict that was a record award in California for asbestos cases, and the largest settlement ever against the City and County of San Francisco, $4 million, for a pedestrian hit by a city bus.

    Alexander stated that she is forming her new firm “to expand our ability to do more at the national level, to help even more consumers and civil rights victims from around the country.”  Her company will specialize in personal injury, product liability, and business litigation.

    Alexander obtained her law degree at the University of Santa Clara, Masters of Public Health at the University of California Berkeley, and B.A. at the University of Iowa.  Alexander is the former President of the Consumer Attorneys of California and is a Board Member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association.  Her husband, Skip Faulkner, is a Vietnam combat veteran and a businessman.

    (MEDIA NOTE:  Mary Alexander is available to talk to selected media about compensation for the victims of the recent terrorism as well as her new law firm.)