Michael Dolce biography: 13 things about West Palm Beach, Florida lawyer

Michael Thomas Dolce is a trial lawyer and a political activist from West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. His practice was dedicated to representing survivors of sexual crimes, including child and adult victims and adult survivors of child sexual abuse. 

In litigation, Dolce achieved multiple multi-million-dollar trial verdicts for his clients and numerous substantial settlements. His peers selected him to be included in The Best Lawyers in America.

According to Dolce, he was a victim of sexual abuse as a young boy so he brought to his work the insight and commitment of a survivor. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 1976, he fell from his bicycle in Baltimore, Maryland, USA knocked on a neighbor’s door, was tied up and sexually abused by the neighbor and the neighbor’s teenage son and was threatened at gunpoint not tell anyone about it, according to him. He claimed that the pair abused him twice more.
2. From 1990 to 1991, he attended Lynn University in Boca Raton, Palm Beach County where he earned his bachelor’s degree in history and political science.
3. From 1992 to 1994, he attended the Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Pinellas County, Florida where he earned his Juris Doctor degree.
4. In April 2007, he told the panel of the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida that he was a survivor of child sexual battery and urged support for a bill he wrote that would make it easier for victims to get justice by extending the time limit on bringing charges.
5. In 2009, he achieved one of the highest jury verdicts in Florida history for a child sexual abuse victim. The verdict exceeded $19 million.
6. In 2010, he played a pivotal role in helping to pass Florida’s legislation that repealed all statutes of limitation for civil and criminal prosecution of child sexual abuse.
7. In November 2011, he became a member of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence board of directors.
8. From January 2012 to October 2015, he was a founding partner of Dolce & Paruas, PLLC in West Palm Beach.
9. He was featured in “Pursuit of Truth: Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Seeking Justice”, a documentary film released in 2013.
10. In November 2015, he joined Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, PLLC in West Palm Beach as a partner.
11. In a lawsuit filed on September 17, 2020 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, he said the principal of All Saints Catholic School in Jupiter, Palm Beach County punished a girl, then 11, who claimed a classmate fondled her, instead of investigating her allegations.
12. He was 53 years old when Federal Bureau of Investigation agents executed a search warrant at his apartment in West Palm Beach on March 15, 2023. They found that he was actively downloading child pornography using peer-2-peer software, recovered almost 2000 images and videos of child pornography from his devices and arrested him.
13. On March 30, 2023, he will make his initial appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach.