WYLIE AITKEN

WYLIE Aitken is the founding partner and CEO of Aitken Aitken Cohn in Southern California, one of the state’s most respected personal injury law firms.

Aitken, a nationally recognized trial lawyer, has been trial counsel in numerous significant tort cases involving bad faith insurance practices, aviation, automobiles, product liability, business tort litigation and actions involving wrongful death and major personal injuries.

As a consumer advocate, Aitken developed bilingual consumer protection brochures and brochures on lawyer selection. He has served on college and charitable foundation boards and select commissions involving justice issues such as court congestion and justice facilities. Aitken was the youngest president in the history of the State Trial Bar, and is continually recognized in the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America, including membership in its Hall of Fame.

Los Angeles Daily Journal also recognizes Aitken as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California. He has been named by Southern California Super Lawyers every year since 2004, and featured in The Best Lawyers in America since 1987.

Aitken is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Franklin G. West Award, the Orange County Bar Association’s highest honor; Consumer Watchdog’s Rage for Justice Lifetime Achievement Award; Marquette University Law School’s Lifetime Achievement Award; American Board of Trial Advocates’ Trial Lawyer of the Year; and the OC Trial Lawyer Association’s Top Gun Trial Lawyer of the Year.

In February of 2017, Aitken was named chairman of the Board of Trustees at Chapman University in Orange, California and is now chairman emeritus. Aitken and his wife Bette have a long history of involvement with the university. They have been supporters of the Fowler School of Law since its inception, which also houses the Wylie A. Aitken Trial Courtroom.

Aitken also serves on the school’s Board of Advisors, and in April of 2021 he established a new professorship to support a faculty member whose teaching, scholarship and/or service furthers Chapman University’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice.

Aitken completed undergraduate work at Santa Ana and Cal State Fullerton, and earned a JD from Marquette University Law School where he was a St. Thomas More scholar and associate editor of the Marquette Law Review. In December of 2021, Aitken and his wife Bette established the Bette and Wylie A. Aitken Community Reading Room at Cal State which is dedicated to preserving stories of historical significance in Orange County and beyond.

Aitken is a second generation Irish American whose mother’s family hailed from Co. Cork. The Aitkens have three children who are all attorneys. He is a founding member and past president of the Celtic Bar Association.