Michael J. Piuze

Law Offices of Michael J. Piuze

Specialty: Personal injury

Law School: University of Texas, 1971

Named Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1996 by the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association, Michael Piuze won a $12.5 million judgment last year against Ford Motor Co. after arguing that the roof of a pickup truck collapsed too easily during a rollover and left his client with a broken back.

He also won a $15 million judgment against L.A. County in a medical malpractice suit alleging a poorly positioned breathing tube resulted in brain damage to a 22-month-old patient at County-USC Medical Center.

Piuze is currently in trial against General Motors Corp. in a defective seat belt case in which he represents a paralyzed client. Asked to name his major clients, he simply says “human beings.”

Piuze specializes in civil cases especially personal injury, product liability and insurance bad faith. In 1978, after only six years in practice, he became the youngest California attorney to win a $1 million jury verdict.

After law school, Piuze launched his career in Los Angeles with the firm of Gilbert, Kelly, Crowley and Jennett, then started his own practice in 1976. Born and raised in Worcester, Mass., he got his undergraduate degree at Lake Forest College in Illinois.

Piuze says he decided to go to law school when he was roughed up by two Southern cops and denied his one phone call after being arrested during a traffic stop.

Margot Carmichael Lester