Irwin Zalkin

Before I had any involvement in representing victims of child sexual abuse, I was primarily a maritime attorney and most of my cases involved ship board accidents, ship collisions, ship injuries and I was known for doing that kind of work and I was approached by a very high profile person in San Diego, who was a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

In 2002 when all this news started to come out about what happened in Boston, it became more a national story. He came to me and he said, "I and my two brothers were abused by a priest when we were children. My one brother was institutionalized as a result of that has been in an institution and I want to do something about this. I really want to come out and do something about it. I can't use my name. I can't go public because of my position but can you help me?"

And I said, "Well you know I don't really do this area," and he goes "I know, but I trust you. I've known you. I've seen you in the court room and I trust you and I want you to do this." So I said, "Okay let me see what this is all about," and I started to research this, talked to some lawyers that did this kind of work and went to work, and met with our bishop in San Diego and some other experts and we got involved in a mediation process and we were able to successfully get him compensation for.