Michele Bartoli Cain is a trial lawyer who has spent more than 25 years representing clients seriously injured by medical and dental negligence. She has obtained substantial recoveries for individuals and families affected by the negligence of physicians and dentists across Virginia, D.C., and Maryland.
Michele specializes in dental malpractice, including death occurring as a result of dental error, disabling injuries to the inferior alveolar nerve and lingual nerve, failures to diagnose oral cancer resulting in death, and catastrophic failures of restorative dental treatments. Her medical malpractice case successes cover a wide range of severe and permanent injuries, as well as wrongful death cases for families who have lost loved ones because of professional negligence.
Michele’s record speaks for itself. She has achieved numerous seven-figure settlements and verdicts, including:
- $1.9 million verdict for inferior alveolar nerve injury resultant from an extraction
- $1.4 million settlement for a physician’s failure to diagnose prostate cancer
- $1.5 million verdict for a root canal error resulting in an inferior alveolar nerve injury
- $1.4 million settlement for a disabling dental infection
- $1 million settlement for a serious inferior alveolar nerve injury from negligent implant placement
- $1.8 million settlement in a failure-to-diagnose oral cancer case
- $1 million settlement for a botched hysterectomy case
- $825,000 settlement of a lingual nerve injury
- $700,000.00 settlement during trial of an oral surgery extraction case
- Unanimous $625,000 jury verdict in a zero-offer oral surgery nerve injury malpractice case
Michele is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, and as she has received the Best Lawyers designation for over a decade, Michele has been named to the Washingtonian Top Lawyers Hall of Fame.
In 2023, she received the designation of Virginia Go-To Lawyer for Medical Malpractice, and in 2025, Super Lawyers named her a top-rated attorney in both Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury.
She has been selected for recognition in Best Lawyers continuously since 2009, named a Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer, and repeatedly selected as one of the Best Personal Injury Attorneys in the DMV by Washingtonian magazine.
Michele launched her own firm in Old Town Alexandria in 2005 and joined Shulman Rogers in 2022 when the firm opened its Alexandria office. She serves clients throughout Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Beyond her legal practice, Michele is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and the Board of Governors of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
She has been inducted into the Etheridge Society, the preeminent medical malpractice honor society. A longtime resident of Alexandria, Michele is also a director of the Washington Concert Opera, where she has spent more than a decade working to introduce opera to young audiences.
