Michael P. Addis is a partner in Cravath’s Litigation Department. He primarily focuses his practice on complex civil litigation related to general commercial, contractual, securities, shareholder derivative, antitrust and mergers and acquisitions disputes.
Mr. Addis recently represented The Williams Companies in contractual litigation before the Delaware Court of Chancery related to a planned $37.7 billion merger with Energy Transfer Equity. Following a six-day trial in May 2021, the court awarded Williams a $410 million contractual termination fee, plus interest and reasonable attorneys’ fees, in connection with the now-terminated combination. He continues to represent the company on appeal. Mr. Addis also represents 260 Twelfth Avenue Holdings LLC and other stakeholders in litigation to obtain just compensation for the taking of property through eminent domain by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) in connection with the Hudson Tunnel Project in New York City.
Mr. Addis recently represented Costamare Shipping and other related entities in connection with litigation, including a consolidated putative class action, alleging various theories of liability concerning the October 2021 San Pedro Bay pipeline leak off the coast of California. He also represented Novartis Pharmaceuticals in two qui tam actions alleging violations of the False Claims Act and Anti Kickback Statute and represented Biogen in a qui tam action alleging that Biogen caused the submission of false claims to multiple federal healthcare programs through purported kickback schemes.
Mr. Addis devotes a significant portion of his practice to pro bono service. Among other matters, he argued before the Third Circuit en banc and helped achieve a ruling on an important issue of criminal constitutional rights law, representing amicus curiae Amachi, Inc., a nonprofit organization that tutors children of prisoners, in connection with Jermel Lewis’s appeal of his criminal sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting en banc, vacated Mr. Lewis’s sentence (reversing its own prior decision) and remanded for resentencing.
Mr. Addis received an A.B. magna cum laude in English from Princeton University in 2005, where he received the English Department’s Senior Comprehensive Examination Prize. In 2007, while teaching for Teach for America in New York City, he received an M.S.T. in Teaching Secondary English from Pace University. Mr. Addis received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2010. Mr. Addis joined Cravath in 2011. In 2013, he served as a law clerk to Hon. Kermit V. Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Mr. Addis rejoined Cravath in 2014 and was elected a partner in 2019.
Updated July 2023
