Erin Brockovich
This Assigned Blog will tell about Erin Brockovich and the life she lived before she started helping others. This blog will hopefully inform and inspire you to help others and prove that women are equally as good as men. While Erin may not actively work for women’s right or made big changes in sports or fashion, she still proved to the world you don’t have to be a man to do great things.
Erin Brockovich was born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. She grew up the youngest of four. She went to college at Kansas University with the dream of becoming an artist earning herself an Associate in Applied Arts degree. She eventually moved to California where she worked as management with K-Mart. She soon found love and eventually married her first husband Shawn Brown. They were together for two years and had two children before their marriage unraveled and they divorced. Soon after she got her life back on track, she found love once again in the form of a stockbroker Steve Brockovich. Months after their marriage they hit hard times and to boost her self-confidence Erin got breast implants and started showing signs of anorexia. A year later Steve and Erin divorced. Soon after she found out she was 
pregnant once again. Even with the hard life she had so far with financial problems she still made the courageous decision to keep the baby. Four months into her pregnancy Erin was in a car accident and due to the pregnancy couldn’t have xrays or a MRI, thus the hospital didn’t know that she had herniated her spinal cord. This single mother living in pain and with a baby on the way had hit what seemed like rock bottom. But she continued to go on with the help from a quote her father always told her: “Nothing in this world will take the place of persistence,” Calvin Coolidge. Moving to L.A. with her new boyfriend Jorge Halaby, she met attorney Jim Vititoe who filed a lawsuit for her, getting the neck surgery she needed. The settlement form the lawsuit had provided less than what she had expected and Erin’s father suggested she come home. Unwilling to give up and admit defeat Erin contacted the law firm of Jim Vititoe, Masry & Vititoe to look for a job. She started out answering phones, but proved her worth when her boss came to her with a real-estate pro bono case that needed filling.
At first glance this case contained the Pacific Gas & Electric Company looking to buy a family residence in Hinkley, California. But digging further Erin soon found blood test mixed in with the real estate files. Erin had no formal training, but her instinct kicked in and she asked her boss if she could further investigate the case. What Erin found was shocking. Pacific Gas & Electric had allowed the leakage of Chromium 6, a contaminant, into the well-water of the town Hinckley, for over 30 years. Many residence of the town suffered from ailments ranging from chronic nosebleeds to cancer. As Erin dug to uncover more evidence for this case she sacrificed much, her relationship with Jorge had cooled and she missed much of her children’s lives trying to help others. After several years 643 residents of Hinkley employed Erin and Masry & Vititoe to sue Pacific Gas & Electric. After nearly four years in court Pacific Gas & Electric paid $333 million dollars, the largest direct action lawsuit in history. Erin earned $2.5 million dollars on the case and used it to pay for her chiropractor bills that were attributed to the pain from her neck. While at the chiropractors she met Carla Santos-Shamberg executive to production company Jersey Films. Soon a movie was in the making portraying Erin Brockovich and her hard life and rewarding work.
Now Erin is a lawyer and has her own Law firm and works on medical & pharmaceutical cases helping thousands of people who have been impacted by drugs and devices. She has also since worked on environmental issues, pertaining to groundwater contamination complaints in every state of the US, Australia, and other spots around the world. Another of the big issues she works with are personal injury cases, such as those harmed in motor vehicle accidents to people who have been harmed by a product of the accident. She is currently working on cases in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri. Now she is thought of as the modern-day “David” taking down now-a-day “Goliaths”.
The reason why I chose Erin Brockovich is because of the way she kept persisting. She grew up and moved out of her parent’s house into the real world where she became a single mother and met hard times. Even when it seemed like everything was against her she still kept going, pushing her way back to the top. In a survey to law firms it was found that 96% of their highest paid partners were male. The job of a lawyer is overall viewed as a man’s job. The fact that Erin a single mother with zero formal education was able to bring down a multi-billion dollar company like Pacific Gas & Energy is outstanding. It truly does inspire people that they can be great and reach higher places if they are persistent and never give up. That’s the best thing about Erin Brockovich, she doesn’t just inspire women, she inspires everyone, male, female, young, and old. Erin’s life and work proves that we can become better if we put our minds to it. That’s why I chose her, because she is a remarkable woman who should be acknowledged for the good she has done for our world and society.
Sources:
"Erin Brockovich." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"Erin Brockovich Biography." Erin Brockovich. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"Knowledge Center." Knowledge Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"Erin Brockovich | Consumer Advocate." Erin Brockovich. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
Comments
Excellent job!! I assume you have seen the movie??