Michael S. Carrillo

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Michael S. Carrillo: I always tell every lawyer that comes to work in our office, lead with compassion… Bless Her Heart sponsored SB 1386, which further enhances civil rape shield laws to protect people like my client, Suzy… I’m proud of the fight that we put on and I’m proud of representing these young people and what they’ve been through for so many years.

Narrator: Welcome to “Celebrating Justice” presented by the Trial Lawyers Journal and CloudLex, the next-gen legal cloud platform built exclusively for personal injury law. Get inspired by the nation’s top trial lawyers and share in the stories that shape our pursuit of justice. Follow the podcast and join our community at www.triallawyersjournal.com. Now here’s your host, editor of TLJ and VP of marketing at CloudLex, Chad Sands.

Chad Sands: Welcome back friends to “Celebrating Justice.” In this episode, we hear stories from Pasadena-based trial lawyer Michael Correo. Michael traces his path from a reluctant second-generation attorney to community advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse and civil rights violations. To get to the stories, I asked him, why did you want to become a trial lawyer?

Michael S. Carrillo: I was actually exposed to the law very early because my father is an attorney. And I remember growing up and seeing what he did and thinking, I never want to be an attorney, certainly not a trial lawyer. The reason for that is my dad is somebody that to this day, he would take a pro bono case and invest all his time, energy, and money into a pro bono case that he felt was righteous and maybe even neglect a multi, multi-million dollar case that’s sitting there on his desk because maybe he doesn’t feel it’s as righteous as case A in this scenario. So I always told myself growing up, I don’t want to be a lawyer. I want to do something that makes a lot more money because everybody assumes your father’s a lawyer, you came for money. No, that’s not the case at all. We struggled and I’ve been open, very open about it. I went to bed a lot of nights very hungry. It was a struggle. So I took a much different route and after college I went to law school because I didn’t know what to do with myself and I thought, well, let me give this a shot. And really that feeling, that attitude has changed over the years and I’m grateful for the type of work that we do. And now I can understand my father a little bit more now sitting in this chair and being a part of these righteous cases.

Chad Sands: Yeah, a little bit about the myth of lawyers and income and success. But you saw early on that as hard as your dad was working, it didn’t necessarily mean that there was a lot of money coming in.

Michael S. Carrillo: Correct. That is a big myth. Everybody assumes, you’re a lawyer, your father’s a lawyer, you probably make a lot of money. It’s not always the case, especially for guys just scraping by, the people that are not on the billboards or the people that aren’t even now on social media getting the multi-multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts. There are always those guys in between that are just trying to scrape it and make it by. And that was definitely my father when I was growing up.

Chad Sands: And then you were kind of lost a little bit I guess at college. A lot of people I speak to say that they weren’t really sure what to do next, so they decided to go to law school. You had seen your father work as a lawyer and ultimately, you know, were kind of turned off a little bit, but then decided to go into law school. Tell me a little bit about that decision and kind of your early years after law school and you kind of hanging your own shingle.

Michael S. Carrillo: Well, I went to law school because I didn’t want to work the standard nine to five. I remember being on the phone after I graduated for a phone interview with this company that was an ergonomic desk company. They make ergonomic desks. And I remember being a part of the interview and trying to sell myself. And after that call, I remember thinking, is this what I really want to do? I want to be a salesman for these funky-looking desks that maybe save people carpal tunnel. Heck no. That’s the last thing I want to do. And so by that point though, I was on a waitlisting. I was waitlisted for several law schools. Luckily one of them let me in. But no, the journey from college to law school was I was DJing in college. I wanted to DJ in law school. And I thought, well, let’s keep the party going.

Chad Sands: Like EDM DJing, hip hop, what kind of DJing were you playing?

Michael S. Carrillo: Back then it was top 40 on your average radio top 40 station. And I loved it. I still love it. I miss it. Obviously I’m old, I have kids, and I’m married. I can’t really do that in the evenings. But I love the feel and the enjoyment out of making people smile, laugh, dance. And I think that that actually translates over to what I do in trial lawyering — connection. And more so than anything, being comfortable on the microphone, talking to people, being outgoing, social, connecting — it totally translates to trial lawyering.

Chad Sands: I definitely see that comparison. Being a musician myself back in my youth and that feeling of connection with the audience and the energy that you can feel as a musician or DJ, and that obviously there is a connection there in the courtroom. When it comes to the competition out there, as you talked about, the guys in the middle — you’re in Pasadena, so the greater LA area — how do you separate yourself from the competition or what makes you unique as a trial lawyer?

Michael S. Carrillo: What makes myself and our firm unique is that my father has had an over 45-year history of representing Latinos in this community. And I am a proud Latino, Mexican-American. And because of that, the community looks for my dad and hopefully now they start looking for me as well. So I think that’s what sets us apart. It’s our ability to connect with our clients, not only in their native language, but connecting with jurors in their native language as well. And so I think that that’s what sets us apart as well as the compassion that we show to our clients and it resonates within the community. I always tell every lawyer that comes to work in our office, lead with compassion and everything else will follow because that’s so important dealing with people that have been through some of the worst traumas and tragedies that even the human mind can’t comprehend.

Chad Sands: And you mentioned it when you were growing up, seeing your dad work as a trial lawyer and kind of taking these pro bono cases, or, you know, not the ones that would have the huge settlements, but something that had a purpose and a mission. And it sounds like that legacy kind of had helped establish you guys in your community. Can you talk a little bit about those early years and your dad?

Michael S. Carrillo: Sure. So, well, in the early years after I became an attorney, I started my own practice doing family law and criminal defense. And that was just because I worked for a firm in Orange County that didn’t cover Los Angeles, so they would refer me a lot of business. And that side of the law is extremely miserable. I honor and respect what those guys do, but family law can be some of the most toxic cases. 

Chad Sands: Yes, heard that, heard that.

Michael S. Carrillo: Criminal law, it’s very difficult. You’re dealing with people’s liberties on the line. The way I’ve had it described is “criminal defense is the worst people on their best behavior and family law is the best people on their worst behavior.” And after a few years, my dad and I joined together on one of these big cases called the Miramonte Elementary School out of the Los Angeles Unified School District where a teacher — elementary school–age teacher — was caught “spoon feeding” semen to kids, putting it on cookies and feeding that to kids and taking pictures of that. And we represented a lot of the victims there. I joined my dad on that case. And then from there, I think the community just thought, well, I guess that’s the work that they do. We started getting a lot of referrals in that area. And now we’ve been blessed to continue with those types of cases, along with our civil rights niche that we have now.

Chad Sands: Speaking of cases, I know it’s hard to choose one over the years, but could you share a story about a case that had a significant impact on you, and not just necessarily maybe the verdict amount, but really the client and the case?

Michael S. Carrillo: The one that I think about right now sitting here is the one that just resulted in a big verdict. And I don’t bring that up to say because of the money aspect. I bring it up to say I’m proud of the fight that we put on and I’m proud of representing these young people and what they’ve been through for so many years. And that is the Jane and John Doe’s versus Mountain View School District in El Monte, California.

Chad Sands: And so this was one that had gone on for over seven years, is that right?

Michael S. Carrillo: It went on for over seven years. We started the trial in 2021 and it was intervened by the California Supreme Court. It ended up in the court of appeals and the California Supreme Court with published decisions. And then after the result came back, we didn’t agree with it. So we took it to a legislator who — bless her heart — sponsored SB 1386, which further enhanced the civil rape shield laws to protect people like my client, Susie. Thanks to Senator Caballero, we were able to establish what is now known as Suzy’s Law.

Chad Sands: Can you go back seven years ago at a very basic law firm level? Like what did the client intake look like? How did you guys come across this case?

Michael S. Carrillo: This was actually referred to us by a colleague of mine that I trust and who does amazing work. And at the time, I didn’t think it would ever consume my life for seven years. It started with two victims and then it grew from there. And at the end, right now, we represent 12 of this teacher’s victims. Six of them went to trial recently and won a huge verdict. And at the time, I remember thinking, well, it’s a case. I didn’t think of anything different. I didn’t think it would be life-changing for me or for the young people that I represented. Now it’s totally different. Changed my life.

Chad Sands: Talk to me about the timeline and the obstacles that you guys had to overcome and what the defense kind of threw at you guys, starting with when you first got it. Why did you kind of see it as just another case that wouldn’t necessarily drag on and have this big impact on you?

Michael S. Carrillo: I just assumed it was just your standard child sexual abuse case, which we have handled before — and that feels disgusting to say it that way — but I guess it would just be a common child sexual abuse case. I had no idea that the defense would try to claim that one of the most horrifically abused clients, they would claim that she’s lying about all this abuse. And even in the trial that just happened this year, 2025, they tried to argue to the jury that she was lying, that she just inflated everything that happened to her, even though this perp had been convicted for her charges and got sent to state prison. It just baffled me. And this is the same case where we had to deal with a judge who really was the third defense attorney in the room, who blocked us at every step, who made life extremely difficult and stressful for us, but also for the clients. And that’s where it hurt. I can take it, but to have these young people go through a process which is already difficult and then have a judge that is openly antagonistic towards our case — it was frustrating.

Chad Sands: Sounds like you guys overcame a number of hurdles and had to go up the chain of command, so to speak, in the courts. Talk to me about those big kind of milestones and what was the first one where you guys felt like the case was going a certain direction.

Michael S. Carrillo: Well, in the first trial in 2021, the defense wanted to bring up another incident of sexual abuse that one of our clients suffered. Susie, unfortunately, had been horrifically molested by this teacher, Mr. Baldenebro, at Miramonte Elementary School. Four or five years later, she was also molested at a family party by a family friend or person that she happened to know. It wasn’t to the extent that the teacher did. So the school district wanted to bring in that evidence of the other incident to say, well, she has PTSD and is going through the effects of trauma not because of her teacher putting his penis in her mouth and forcing her to give him oral copulation. No, instead it’s this boy who tried to touch her at a family party. We felt that that was totally unjustified and wrong. And the trial judge felt like, it’s like a car crash case — you bring in the second car crash to say they’re not as affected. But the law is clear, you cannot do that in sexual assault cases. So that’s the first hurdle we took. We took it all the way up to the Supreme Court. They issued their decision. We didn’t feel it was right because they basically left it in the hands of the trial judge to again examine this. And in our opinion, she was just going to let it in again, regardless of the new protocols that the Supreme Court established. We worked with Senator Caballero to establish that new law, Suzy’s Law, which prevented that. And then in this trial in 2025, they weren’t allowed to do that. And it just saved this victim — and future victims — from having their whole personal lives being thrown out there in a trial. And if you met this victim survivor, excuse me, you would understand why we did all this. She is such an amazing human being and somebody that is dear to my heart. And I am grateful that she trusted us for so many years.

Chad Sands: So when you took on this case, I guess you never really thought it would lead to legislation and new laws being made.

Michael S. Carrillo: Never did I think it would lead to this path, never ever. And I’m grateful. I learned a lot. I’m still learning a lot. Even from these survivors — they’re teaching me so much about compassion, empathy, forgiveness. It’s unreal.

Chad Sands: And so after, I guess, Suzy’s Law was passed and then you guys were able to move ahead with the litigation and had Suzy’s Law preventing, you know, the judge or any other court from saying that the sexual assault five years later could be brought in…

Michael S. Carrillo: That’s exactly what happened. The trial judge was not allowed, even though she considered it again, that she might let it in. And she issued some long decision that closed that out. And we tried the case, no problem, as long as they didn’t tread on that — and they didn’t.

Chad Sands: You tried this with your dad and was it the Trial Lawyers for Justice team?

Michael S. Carrillo: Yes, total team effort. I got to give kudos to the entire team — Nick Rowley, Courtney Rowley, John Kawai, Keith Bruno, myself, Laura Jimenez, and my dad Luis Carrillo. It was a total team effort and I am grateful and a better person from having met them and worked with them in this case.

Chad Sands: And how did that kind of collaboration come together? And if you can, tell me a little bit about what it was like in the courtroom, you know, and how you guys handled the case. Did you guys divvy it up and, you know, someone’s taking the opening, someone’s taking the closing, and who’s handling the witness? Tell me a little bit about the strategy.

Michael S. Carrillo: Sure, so each of us represented — excuse me — Nick Rowley represented two survivors, Keith Bruno represented two survivors, myself and our office represented two survivors. So we each had our own opening, voir dire, closing, rebuttal. We ended up shortening everything and limiting time for folks so that way the jury wasn’t mad at us for just recycling the same things. But props to Nick, John, Courtney. They agreed to come in last minute and I think three weeks or two weeks before trial starting. And really Laura, myself, and my dad thought, I mean, we could do this again, but why not get some help? And those guys are titans in the industry. I learned a great deal from them, Keith Bruno. I mean, these are some of the sharpest trial lawyers I’ve ever met.

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Now here is this episode’s “Closing Argument.”

Michael S. Carrillo: To me, what’s so important — and sometimes gets lost in all the work that we do, depositions, court dates, trial, et cetera — is the real human impact of the work that we do and in seeking justice for injured or damaged clients. One story that really sticks out to me is that we had a six-week trial. This was a child sexual abuse case against the Los Angeles Unified School District, and we represented six survivors of sexual abuse by their elementary school teacher. We put on a good case. I thought we had a solid victory in hand. I thought we were going to win this case. And the jury did not feel that we proved that they were negligent, that we didn’t have enough evidence to prove that the school district knew or should have known about the sexual abuse that was being committed by this teacher.

Obviously the result was devastating, and I just couldn’t understand it for so long. But what brought me back to this earth and what brought me back from that depression or that ugly feeling that I had for so long was the clients themselves. And this is when I knew I was in the right line of work. This is when I knew this is the type of work that I needed to focus on and do. When I met with the clients — and I still remember this to this day — they were in my conference room. I came in with a sad face, myself, my father, and we met with these young people who had turned 18, 19 by this time. Their case had been going on for years as well. And I remember turning to one in particular, looking at her, and giving her this horrible news that we had lost her case.

The jury didn’t believe that we had proven the case enough that the school district knew about this perp. And I’ll never forget as she turned to me and said, “You know what, Michael, that’s okay. Thank you for believing in me and fighting for me. You gave me my voice back.” And I remember thinking, wow, she’s picking me up off the floor when it should be the reverse. I should be picking her up off the floor. And I’ll never forget that. And it always holds true to my heart that as long as you show these clients love, support, compassion, and that you’re fighting for them all the way, they will reciprocate and show you that love and support even when you need it. And so for me, I try to always remember that. And I try to always remember that client and how she changed my life and how I’ll never forget that conversation where she picked me up off the ground, dusted me off, and said, just keep going, keep doing the work that you do.

Chad Sands: That was trial lawyer Michael Carrillo. Thanks for sharing your stories. To learn more about Michael and his firm, visit their website, carrillofirm.com .Narrator: You’ve been listening to “Celebrating Justice” presented by CloudLex and the Trial Lawyers Journal. Remember, the stories don’t end here.

Visit www.triallawyersjournal.com to become part of our community and keep the conversation going. And for a deeper dive into the tools that empower personal injury law firms, visit www.cloudlex.com/TLJ to learn more.