Erin Brockovich was born on 22 June 1960 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. She is a former clerk and now a legal consultant and environmental activist who gained international media attention for her self-titled biopic starring Julia Roberts, which showed her central role in the lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in 1993. In addition, she is the president of her consulting firm, Brockovich Research & Consulting.
So just how rich is Brockovich? She is reported by sources to have a net worth of $42 million which she has earned from her success as a legal consultant. Her company services large firms such as Girardi & Keese in Los Angeles, Weitz & Luxenberg in New York, and Shine Lawyers in Australia.
Erin Brockovich Net Worth $42 Million
Brockovich was born Erin Pattee to parents Frank, an industrial engineer, and Betty Jo, a journalist, the youngest of four children. She finished at Lawrence High School and went to Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas but later transferred to Miss Wade’s Fashion Merchandising College (now named Wade College) in Dallas, Texas from where she graduated with an Applied Arts Degree in 1980. Her previous jobs include being a management trainee at Kmart and as an assistant in a brokerage firm in Reno, Nevada. She is also a former beauty queen, winning the Miss Pacific Coast crown in 1981.
Upon moving to California, in 1992 she was hired as a legal clerk by Ed Masry, who represented her in a car accident case, for his firm Masry & Vittoe. During her work, Brockovich discovered evidence of hexavalent chromium contamination in the drinking water of the residents of Hinkley, California which was used by PG&E in a cooling tower system against corrosion.
More than 600 of the Hinkley residents hired Masry and his firm in a case against PG&E for covering up the high levels of chromium in the water, which led to several illnesses among the townspeople. After proving the company’s knowledge of the contamination, in 1996 the case was settled for $333 million, the largest amount paid in a direct-action lawsuit in US history. Masry’s firm received $133.6 million from the settlement, from which Brockovich reportedly received a bonus fee worth $2 million. Brockovich and the Hinkley case was made into the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich” starring Julia Roberts, for which Roberts won an Academy Award for Best Actress playing the titular character. Brockovich appeared in a cameo in the movie as a waitress.
The success of the movie garnered her considerable fame, and she continued to work on several high-profile anti-pollution lawsuits. She is the now president of Brockovich Research & Consulting and has a partnership with Google to create a crowd-sourced environmental monitoring map. In 2001, Brockovich released her New York Times bestseller book “Take It from Me: Life’s a Struggle but You Can Win”.
She also hosted her Lifetime series called “Final Justice with Erin Brockovich” and the ABC special “Challenge America with Erin Brockovich”. She appeared in the 2012 documentary “Last Call at the Oasis”, which centers on water pollution and scarcity in the US. She is also a consumer and environmental advocate, getting invited to speak at various conferences and commencement exercises in which she has earned honorary doctorates from several universities. Her net worth continues to grow.
In recognition of her efforts, Erin has been rewarded with two honorary Doctorates – of Laws from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland Oregon, of Humane Letters from Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, and a Masters of Arts in Business Communication from Jones International University, Colorado.
In her personal life, Brockovich has been married and divorced three times. She married her first husband Shawn Brown in 1982 and divorced in 1987. They had two children, Matthew and Katie. She then married Steve Brockovich in 1989, whom she had a daughter with named Elizabeth but they divorced later that year. Brockovich was then wed to Eric Ellis in 1998 but they divorced in 2012.
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