Elizabeth Bertolino

Elizabeth Bertolino is a sexual abuse attorney who represents survivors in civil lawsuits against abusers and the institutions that enabled them. She brings sexual abuse claims against schools, colleges, churches, doctors, therapists, employers, jails, and government agencies that ignored reports or covered up what happened. She also handles police misconduct, image-based sexual abuse, domestic violence, and stalking.

Elizabeth is a former prosecutor. As an Assistant District Attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, she spent most of her time in a felony unit, where she tried the majority of her cases to verdict. She also served in the domestic violence unit, handling sexual assault and domestic violence cases, including cases involving survivors with mental disabilities. In 2023 she won a jury conviction against a man who secretly recorded a sexual encounter and shared it without his partner's consent, the first revenge porn guilty verdict in the Bay Area. Elizabeth began her career as an attorney at The Veen Firm, handling personal injury cases, and returns to the firm as of counsel.

Elizabeth is co-lead counsel, with The Veen Firm, LLP, in a federal civil rights class action on behalf of women subjected to a mass strip search at San Francisco County Jail while sheriff's deputies recorded them. She filed the first claims for 19 women in November 2025, and the case has been covered by KQED, Mission Local, The San Francisco Standard, the Daily Journal, and Bay Area television news.

Elizabeth understands how trauma shapes the way survivors of sexual abuse respond, including staying in contact with or placating the person who harmed them, responses that attorneys and juries often misread. She also represents survivors whose Title IX complaints were denied and adult survivors whose sexual abuse claims California has reopened under recent revival laws.