Erin’s life story

Erin was born Erin L. E. Pattee on June 22, 1960 in Lawrence, Kansas, where she grew up and attended the local high school. She is the youngest of four children to an industrial engineer father and a journalist mother.

After graduating from Lawrence High School, Erin attended Kansas State University for one year and then moved to Dallas, Texas, where she earned an Associate in Applied Arts degree at Wades Business College.

Following graduation, Erin moved to Southern California in 1981 and worked for K-Mart as a management trainee before taking a job at Fluor Engineers and Constructors to work and study to become an electrical design engineer.

After a few months, Erin decided to explore the world of beauty pageants and entered some potentially lucrative competitions. She won the Miss Pacific Coast in 1981, before giving up the pageant life and marrying a restaurant manager.

Erin and her husband moved back to Kansas where her children, Matthew and Katie, were born. Her family settled in Reno, Nevada. In 1987, when Erin was 26 she and her first husband divorced. Erin knew she had to work to support her family and took a secretarial job at a local brokerage.

This is where she met and married, a stockbroker named Steve Brockovich in 1989. Erin gave birth to her youngest daughter, Elizabeth, before her second marriage ended in May 1990, when she was 29.

But just four months into her pregnancy, Erin had a major car accident. Because of her pregnancy, no X-rays or MRI’s were taken, and no one realised that Erin had herniated her spinal cord. Moving a mere inch caused her excruciating pain.

During this difficult time of physical and financial hardship, Erin drew inspiration from a quote by Calvin Coolidge that her father had told her as a child, about having persistence and pressing on.

Her and her family moved back to Southern California where she hired Jim Vititoe of Masry & Vititoe to handle her motor vehicle accident case in 1991. Shortly after her case was resolved, Erin sought work at the law firm as a file clerk.

While organising papers in a pro bono real estate case, Erin found medical records in the file that caught her eye. On the surface, the case concerned Pacific Gas & Electric’s (one of the largest gas and electric utilities in the United States) interest in buying a family residence in Hinkley, California. But, Erin began to dig deeper when she noticed there were blood samples mixed in with the real estate files.

After getting permission from one of the firm's principals, Ed Masry, she began to research the matter. What Erin discovered was that Pacific Gas & Electric had allowed the leakage of a contaminant called Chromium 6 into the groundwater of Hinkley, California for over 30 years. Countless people from this small desert community were suffering from ailments ranging from chronic nosebleeds to cancer.

Erin was relentless in her search for the truth, and the personal sacrifices she made were enormous. After nearly four years in arbitration, the giant utility paid a $333 million toxic tort injury settlement—the largest direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history. Erin Brockovich had brought a multi-billion-dollar corporation to its knees.

The case inspired the Universal Studios film, ‘Erin Brockovich’, which highlighted Erin’s legal triumph and personal challenges. The film won 5 Academy Award nominations, out of which Julia Roberts won an Oscar for best actress for her portrayal of Erin. She also won, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA Award.

When the film was released in March 2000, it catapulted Erin into overnight stardom. Suddenly, 40-year-old Erin was a household name and the world was eager to meet the real woman who had inspired the movie. Erin decided to harness her fame to spread positive messages of personal empowerment and encourage people to stand up and make a difference.

Since then Erin has appeared in many television projects, including an ABC special entitled “Challenge America with Erin Brockovich." in 2001. As well as hosting the Lifetime series "Final Justice." This series documents real accounts of women who have had the courage to change the injustices they have encountered. Followed by Erin’s book entitled "Take It from Me, Life's a Struggle, But You Can Win.", which offers practical lessons in honesty, integrity, believing in yourself.

Erin currently acts as the President of the consulting firm Brockovich Research & Consulting, and she is involved in numerous major environmental cases. This includes working with Shine Lawyers’ in a case against Alcoa Inc, an international mining giant, on behalf of approximately 250 plaintiffs who have suffered various symptoms of ill health, including cancers, consequent upon their exposure to toxic emissions from Alcoa’s three alumina refineries situated south of Perth.

Erin was remarried in 1999 to Eric Ellis, and they live with her children in Southern California.

In addition, Erin is frequently requested as a motivational speaker as part of her role with the William Morris Agency. She travels the world doing personal appearances spreading motivational messages, and telling her story and personal life lessons.

Through her trials and triumphs Erin is a pillar of justice and demonstrates how one person can bear a strength that can make the world a better place, one person at a time.

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