Michael Carrillo

Michael Carrillo did not plan to follow his father, Luis Carrillo, into law. Watching his dad pour time and money into pro bono cases he believed were righteous, Michael saw a family that struggled. “I went to bed a lot of nights very hungry,” he says. After college, a phone interview to sell ergonomic desks convinced him that was not the life he wanted, so he took a spot off a law school waitlist. Today, sitting in his own chair on righteous cases, he says he finally understands his father.

Michael points to roots. His father has represented Latinos in Los Angeles for more than 45 years, and as a proud Mexican-American who speaks Spanish, Michael can connect with clients and jurors in their native language. The other piece is compassion. “I always tell every lawyer that comes to work in our office, lead with compassion and everything else will follow,” he says, because his clients have lived through traumas most people cannot comprehend. He also credits DJing in college with making him comfortable on a microphone.

Michael names Jane and John Does v. Mountain View School District in El Monte, California, a child sexual abuse case that consumed more than seven years. It began with two victims and grew to 12; six won a large verdict at trial in 2025. The district tried to introduce a later, unrelated assault on his client Suzy to blame her trauma on something else. Michael fought that through the court of appeal and the California Supreme Court, then worked with Senator Anna Caballero on SB 1386, Suzy’s Law.

Michael’s closing thought is about human impact. After a six-week trial against the Los Angeles Unified School District for six survivors of a teacher’s abuse, the jury found the district had not been proven negligent. He and his father went to tell the clients. One survivor answered, “Thank you for believing in me and fighting for me. You gave me my voice back.” She was picking him up off the floor, he says, when it should have been the reverse. That told him he was in the right work.

Carrillo Law Firm’s results include $139.5 million in A.M. v. LAUSD, the Miramonte Elementary School case, $58 million in K.V. v. LAUSD and $24 million in I.M. v. California Highway Patrol. Michael Carrillo joined his father on the Miramonte litigation after several years of criminal defense and family law work, and the community referrals that followed shaped the firm’s focus on child sexual abuse cases. He has been named to the National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 and is a member of the National Association of Distinguished Counsel.

Michael Carrillo earned a B.A. in general communication, with minors in history and Spanish, from Purdue University in 2000 and his J.D. from Whittier Law School in 2005, the same year he was admitted to the California State Bar. He spent 2005 to 2008 at an Orange County firm handling criminal defense and family law, launched a solo practice in Los Angeles in 2008 and joined his father around 2010 to form Carrillo Law Firm, LLP. He is a member of the Mexican American Bar Association.

Carrillo Law Firm, LLP, is based in Pasadena, California, serving the greater Los Angeles community where Michael Carrillo’s father, Luis, has practiced for more than 45 years. Michael handles civil rights and police misconduct, personal injury, sexual abuse litigation, wrongful death and appeals and civil rights policy work. The firm’s website is carrillofirm.com. He credits a “total team effort” on the Mountain View trial, working alongside Nick Rowley, Courtney Rowley, John Kawai, Keith Bruno, Laura Jimenez and his father, Luis Carrillo.