Carissa Casolari defends her clients in all areas of civil litigation involving automotive, product and premises liability and personal injury and death claims with high exposure. Having taken almost twenty cases to jury trial as first or second chair, Carissa has extensive trial experience in high profile, catastrophic injury or wrongful death, complex cases with multi-million dollar demands on behalf of motor vehicle defendants.
Carissa has managed all stages of litigation, including pleadings, discovery, disposition of claims, trial and post-trial motions. She has worked on cases involving wrongful death, catastrophic personal injury, equipment failures, construction defect and multi-vehicle accidents. Carissa has conducted and defended over a thousand depositions of parties, witnesses, medical professionals and experts. She has drafted, argued and won dispositive motions as well as obtained numerous dismissals, judgments and settlements of $0 for corporate clients with multi-million dollar demands. Prior to joining Bowman & Brooke, Carissa was managing partner of a civil litigation defense law firm representing large corporations.
Community, diversity and inclusion are important to Carissa. She worked on behalf of children in obtaining individualized education programs through their school districts to further children with disabilities in acquiring their degrees. Carissa is involved in the Orange County Bar Association and Women Lawyers Association. She is the firm chair of the Women's Committee, co-chair of the attorney development group and on the DEI committee. She was also named a Lawyer of Distinction in 2022.
Outside the office, Carissa enjoys spending time with her family, watching her daughter’s sports, traveling and being outdoors.