Man With a
MISSION
Protecting children from sexual abuse—
it's a calling for Robert Allard
BY JUNE D. BELL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREGORY COWLEY
WHEN A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT PHONED
Robert Allard in the summer of 2009,
work was far from the attorney's mind.
He was in Syracuse, N. Y., 2,800 miles
from his San Jose law office and in the
thick of a summer visit to his in-laws’
home. Allard’s four young children were
scampering around with twice as many
of their cousins, and the house was noisy
with chatter and laughter.
The voice on the other end of the line,
however, was somber. Allard listened
closely as the caller described how a San
Jose swim coach had molested his teenage
daughter. He was looking for an attorney to
pursue a civil suit.
“The case immediately captured my
attention,” says Allard, a founding partner
at Corsiglia McMahon & Allard in San Jose.
“The thought of someone having their
first sexual experience with a coach they
trusted … sickened me.”
That call redirected the course of Allard’s
legal career. He had built a successful
personal injury practice and secured
multimillion-dollar settlements and
arbitration awards, but he’d never handled
a sexual abuse case.
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