LAWYER
Michael L. Trope
Lloyd Bloom, Michael L. Trope, Donald Valeska – Assistant Attorney General, Alabama in 1988
For decades, Michael L. Trope has helped individuals navigate sensitive legal matters through disciplined preparation, grounded judgment, and a calm, focused approach.
Lloyd Bloom, Michael L. Trope, Donald Valeska – Assistant Attorney General, Alabama in 1988
For decades, Michael L. Trope has helped individuals navigate sensitive legal matters through disciplined preparation, grounded judgment, and a calm, focused approach.
Michael Trope’s career as a lawyer has been diverse and rich in experience.
Trope has handled family law cases where the value of the community estates have ranged from zero, to millions, to tens of millions, to hundreds of miilions to billions of dollars. He has represented the very rich and the very poor. Irrespective of money he takes each case very seriously.
He has represented numerous people in the entertainment industry, academy award winners, has represented billionaires, has represented people against billionaires, has represented doctors, lawyers, business executives, accountants, business managers, and people from all walks of life including household workers, and people who were indigent with no money. He has represented people in civil jury trials, in criminal jury trials, bench trials, arbitrations, has cross examined hundreds of witnesses in felony preliminary proceedings in criminal cases.
Michael Trope’s career as a lawyer has been diverse and rich in experience.
Trope has handled family law cases where the value of the community estates have ranged from zero, to millions, to tens of millions, to hundreds of miilions to billions of dollars. He has represented the very rich and the very poor. Irrespective of money he takes each case very seriously.
He has represented numerous people in the entertainment industry, academy award winners, has represented billionaires, has represented people against billionaires, has represented doctors, lawyers, business executives, accountants, business managers, and people from all walks of life including household workers, and people who were indigent with no money. He has represented people in civil jury trials, in criminal jury trials, bench trials, arbitrations, has cross examined hundreds of witnesses in felony preliminary proceedings in criminal cases.
Types of cases in which Michael Trope has represented clients:
- Child Custody Cases
- Restraining Order Cases
- Criminal Defense Jury Trials, Felony Preliminary Hearings, Plea Bargains
- Guardianship Trials
- Will Contest Litigation and Trials
- Conservatorship Litigation
- Mediations
- Arbitrations
- Child Support Cases – including a case in 2010 where his client received $10,250,000 as a lump sum retroactive child support payment plus $100,000 per month in future child support for 1 child.
- Civil Jury Trials – including a case in 1994 where Trope obtained a jury verdict in excess of $1million for his client, a father for emotional distress caused at a child custody exchange. Trope also has obtained plaintiff verdicts in a wrongful death case, a sexual battery case, and obtained a defense verdict in a jury trial for a prominent television producer who was sued for $3million in 2013 for domestic abuse.
ARTICLE LINKS
Behind the Practice: A Career Built in Two Worlds
EDUCATION
University of Southern California, B.A.
— magna cum laude (1973)
Loyola Marymount University, J.D. (1981)
MEMBERSHIPS
Michael Trope’s professional life spans two very different arenas: the high-stakes world of NFL representation and the equally intense landscape of Los Angeles family law. For more than thirty years, he has handled complex divorces, custody disputes and civil cases in a city known for public scrutiny and difficult litigation.
Earl Campbell – Herman Trophy winner and number 1 overall NFL draft pick in 1978, Michael Trope, Bud Adams – Houston Oilers owner, Bum Phillips – Houston Oilers head coach
Decades in Litigation
Trope gained early legal experience in the Public Defender’s Office and joined the California Bar in 1987. He began with criminal defense, probate matters and civil litigation before focusing primarily on family law and related civil disputes. His work has centered on trial advocacy, complex personal conflicts and emotionally demanding cases and includes significant verdicts in high-profile matters.
Michael Trope with Desmond Tutu, archbishop of Johanessburg and Nobel Peace prize winner. Taken at the arch diocese in Johanessburg South Africa 1985
Writing
Trope is the author of Necessary Roughness, a memoir about his NFL years, and Once Upon a Time in Los Angeles: The Life and Times of Earl Rogers, a biography of famed Los Angeles trial lawyer Earl Rogers.
Early Years as a Top Sports Agent
Trope’s career started with a bold move. As a 20-year-old USC student, he decided he wanted to represent Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers. In 1972 he flew to Nebraska, walked onto the Cornhuskers practice field and convinced Rodgers to meet with him. Rodgers eventually signed with him, launching Trope into a decade that made him one of the most prolific NFL agents of the era.
Through the 1970s and early ’80s, Trope represented more than one hundred NFL players and seven Heisman Trophy winners. In the 1979 NFL Draft, thirty-three of his clients were selected in the first three rounds, a record-setting moment. His roster included Earl Campbell, Tony Dorsett, Archie Griffin and Lawrence Taylor, and his negotiations helped shape early multi-million-dollar player contracts.
Covered in numerous publications, including:
