Pomerantz Partner Michael Grunfeld began his legal career in the fall of 2008 as the financial crisis was unfolding. He has worked on numerous significant securities class actions, residential mortgage-backed securities cases, and other complex commercial litigation.
Michael played an integral role in Pomerantz’s litigation against Yahoo! Inc. for Yahoo’s alleged failure to disclose data breaches that occurred in 2014 and 2015—the two largest data breaches in history at the time. He drafted the plaintiffs’ opposition to defendants’ motion to dismiss. The force of his arguments in that briefing led defendants to the negotiating table, ultimately resulting in an $80 million settlement that marked the first substantial shareholder recovery in a securities fraud class action related to a cybersecurity breach. For years, data breach class actions were typically dismissed early on by courts, and commentators have noted the significance of Yahoo in showing that misstatements related to data breaches as severe as those at issue in this case are actionable.
In addition, Michael led Pomerantz’s litigation on behalf of the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement System as an intervenor in The Doris Behr 2012 Irrevocable Trust v. Johnson & Johnson. An activist investor was attempting to have Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”) shareholders’ vote on a proxy proposal instituting a corporate bylaw that would require all securities fraud claims against the company to be pursued through mandatory arbitration, and that would waive shareholder’s rights to bring securities class actions. In March 2022, the district court handed down an important victory for shareholders when it granted J&J’s and the Intervenor’s Motion to Dismiss the Third Amended Complaint. The Third Circuit affirmed that decision on May 9, 2023, and the case is now closed.
Michael led Lerman, et al. v. Apple Inc., a consumer class action against Apple related to the allegation that the iOS 9 operating system harmed the performance of iPhone 4S devices. The Court granted final approval to a $20 million settlement on behalf of the class on October 4, 2022. Michael achieved this significant result after substantial merits discovery and successfully navigating the litigation through the class certification process, where he took and defended many fact and expert depositions, engaged in extensive discovery efforts and drafted the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and related Daubert briefing. Michael achieved a resounding victory when Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. certified the class on October 7, 2020, and, on February 19, 2021, the Second Circuit denied Apple’s petition seeking leave to appeal.
Michael has also led numerous other successful securities class actions at Pomerantz that have resulted in significant settlements for the class and favorable rulings from the district and appellate courts.
Michael was named a Benchmark Litigation Future Star in 2023 after being featured on the 40 & Under list in 2021 and 2022. He was honored as a Lawdragon Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer in 2022. In 2019, Law360 named Michael a Rising Star, an honor awarded to a select few top litigators under 40 years old “whose legal accomplishments transcend their age.” In addition, he was honored in 2018 and 2019 as a Super Lawyers® Rising Star and from 2020 forward as a Super Lawyers® Top-Rated Securities Litigation Attorney.
Updated Sep 2023
