Mike is a trial lawyer with over 45 plus years of experience in insurance and commercial litigation – the last 30 plus years as first-chair – and has direct experience in antitrust, bankruptcy, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, director and officer liability, fraud, interference with contract, insurance coverage and bad faith, insurance regulatory, and partnership disputes. A trusted adviser, Mike provides strategic recommendations for businesses and insurers involving multi-party commercial disputes. He has served as lead counsel in complex litigation, and has mediated, arbitrated, litigated and tried hundreds of cases throughout the United States. Mike has helped clients avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in potential recoveries, and handled over 20 appeals. He has achieved significant results in law and motion and appellate practice, resulting in numerous published decisions in both state and federal courts.
Prior to joining the firm, Mike was a partner in an international law firm where he also served for six years as the managing partner of the Los Angeles office. He is an active member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society and the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association. Mike is a frequent writer and speaker on insurance, insurance bad faith, and insurance litigation issues. He has been an editor and contributor to the Directors & Officers Insurance Deskbook (2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions, ABA), the Annotated Financial Institution Bond (2nd Edition, ABA), Commercial Insurance Coverage (2014, ABA), the Financial Institution Bond and Commercial Crime Policy: Principles and Annotations (2024, ABA), and Appleman on Insurance.
Mike received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and earned his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.