Michael Wear is the founding attorney of Wear Trial Law in San Rafael, California. Before opening the firm, he spent more than fifteen years as a Marin County Deputy District Attorney, where he served as Felony Team Coordinator, tried cases on the Special Victims Unit felony trial team, and headed the Consumer Protection Department.
Fifteen years in the courtroom
Trial work is a skill that erodes without repetition. Michael Wear built his in a courtroom, not a conference room.
As a Marin County prosecutor, he handled the county’s hardest cases: felony sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and a hate crime prosecution tried to verdict. As Felony Team Coordinator, he oversaw the felony caseload. As head of the Consumer Protection Department, he ran every aspect of that unit — investigations, charging decisions, and litigation against businesses that had defrauded the public.
On the Special Victims Unit felony trial team, he worked with survivors of sexual violence and with elderly victims whose abusers were often the people entrusted with their care. That work shaped how this firm operates: cases move at a pace the client can tolerate, and the client is never surprised by what happens next.
Why he moved to the plaintiff’s side
A criminal conviction punishes an individual. It rarely touches the institution that hired him, ignored the first complaint, or moved him to another site.
Civil litigation reaches further. Through discovery, a plaintiff can obtain the personnel file, the internal complaint that went nowhere, the email chain among administrators, and the deposition testimony of the person who made the decision. Michael Wear founded Wear Trial Law to do that work — to make institutions answer, in writing and under oath, for what they knew.
Credentials
- Founding attorney, Wear Trial Law, San Rafael, California
- Deputy District Attorney, County of Marin — 15+ years
- Felony Team Coordinator
- Trial attorney, Special Victims Unit felony trial team
- Head, Consumer Protection Department
- AWI-CH credentialed workplace investigator (Association of Workplace Investigators)
- Admitted to practice in California
Areas of Focus
- Sexual abuse and survivor advocacy, including claims against schools, religious institutions, youth sports organizations, and medical providers
- Institutional abuse and neglect, including juvenile detention, residential treatment, and court-ordered placements
- Elder abuse and nursing home neglect
- Catastrophic injury and wrongful death
- Plaintiff-side employment law