Sorrell Trope

Trope and Trope

Specialty: Family law

Law School: USC, 1949

Fifty years in practice have helped Sorrell Trope build a booming celebrity divorce business that has attracted clients like Roseanne Barr, Rod Steiger and Kelly LeBrock.

But he notes that such cases are not among the most challenging he has handled since opening his firm. “Cases that involve business people with a major asset mix are far more interesting,” he says. “If you eliminate the fact that someone is a celebrity, then their case often fits into the same categories as any other.”

Still, representing the likes of Cary Grant for 18 years in custody battles involving the daughter he had with Dyan Cannon has helped Trope build what he says is the largest family law business in the nation, with 25 lawyers.

Through the years, the 71-year-old Trope has seen lots of changes in family law, but says there were few bigger than the passage of the Family Law Act of 1970, which cleared the way for “no-fault” divorce.

“At that point we moved from an era of private investigators to an era of forensic accountants,” he says. “Before 1970, you had to have grounds for divorce, and that gave lawyers and clients some leverage in coming to a settlement. Now that doesn’t exist, and more attention is paid to what someone is worth.”

Trope says he still works hard, getting in at 8 in the morning and working until 6. Associates say he routinely makes two or three court appearances a week.

Trope opened his first office on La Cienega Boulevard 50 years ago when there were still oil wells near major intersections. Why set up shop so far from the downtown legal district? In those days, reporters used to keep a close eye on the downtown law offices. So any celebrity who happened to visit a lawyer was likely to find his or her picture on the front page the next day.

Jason Booth