Michael Carrillo is a trial attorney who fights for justice for his clients. He leads with compassion when working with families who have gone through immense suffering and prides himself on his advocacy for those who have been wronged. Michael Carrillo grew up seeing his father fight injustices but could not fully appreciate the gravity of the work his father was doing until he went to law school.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Michael graduated from Purdue University and then attended Whittier Law School. During law school, he began working for one of the most prestigious and well-known criminal defense and family law firms in Orange County. After working there, Michael went on to start his own firm, The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo, A Professional Corporation. In his solo practice, he handled criminal defense and family law matters and has taken numerous cases to trial. His practice continued for some time until he and his father joined to form the Carrillo Law Firm, LLP.
Working with his father, Luis Carrillo, the two have worked on a myriad of high-profile cases, such as the Miramonte Elementary School case out of south Los Angeles. Michael and his father were part of a nearly $140 million settlement with the Los Angeles Unified School District in which they represented children who had been sexually abused by their teacher, and serial predator, Mark Berndt while they attended Miramonte. This was the largest settlement ever garnered against a school district in the country. Thereafter Michael continued working on other high-profile sexual abuse and civil rights matters that resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements and verdicts. Besides settlements and verdicts, he has had several published decisions in the area of child sexual abuse including D.Z v. LAUSD (35 Cal.App. 5 th 210), Doe v. Superior Court (15 Cal.5 th 40), and Victor Valley Union High School District v. Superior Court (91 Cal.App. 5 th 1121). Michael has also advocated for changes in the legislation including working with state Senators for the passage of recent laws to further protect children. Those changes to the law include “Melanie’s Law,” which further enhanced the school safety plans to address possible drug abuses taking place on campus and “Suzie’s Law” which further enhanced the civil Rape Shield laws in the State of California. Some of his recent wins include a $48 million-dollar verdict against the Mountain View School District on behalf of children sexually abused by their elementary school teacher.
Oher recognitions include in 2018 being featured in the Daily Journal Article entitled “Children’s Champions” and in 2024, he and the firm were finalists for “Street Fighter of the Year award” for their work on a civil rights restraint asphyxia case.
Michael continues to work on high-profile cases that have garnered national media attention. His practice today focuses on child sexual abuse cases, police misconduct cases, catastrophic injuries and other wrongful death matters.
