Practice Areas:
Commercial
Jurisdictions:
Biography
Mike is a trial lawyer. He litigates and tries complex commercial cases for large and small companies and individuals. Mike’s trial resume includes multiple plaintiff-side jury verdicts and settlements in commercial cases totaling nearly $300 million. Three of his jury verdicts have been recognized in The National Law Journal’s annual “Top 100 Verdicts” of the year issue. He has represented businesses, private equity funds and their portfolio companies, and financial institutions in litigation covering a wide range of industries, including real estate development and investments, finance and private equity, banking, pharmaceuticals and insurance. Over the past 25 years, Mike also has advised companies on litigation risk in connection with corporate transactions, and has successfully represented financial institutions before regulatory bodies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to co-founding Kibler Fowler & Cave, Mike was a litigator at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP for over 18 years (14 years as a partner) in the firm’s New York and Los Angeles offices.
Mike has been named by Benchmark Litigation as a “Litigation Star.” In 2025 and 2026, the Daily Journal named Mike to its “Top 100 Lawyers” list, which recognizes the most accomplished and influential attorneys in California. In 2023, the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized Mike as one of the top trial lawyers in Los Angeles by naming him a “Leader of Influence: Litigators & Trial Attorneys.” Mike has received an “AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating” by Martindale-Hubbell, has been included in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Lawyers” in the field of Commercial Litigation, and has been named a “Super Lawyer” eight times by Thomson Reuters in the field of Business Litigation. He is a past recipient of the Burton Award for Legal Achievement, which honors the nation’s finest legal writers. Mike is a member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, a California based forum for litigators and judges to meet and discuss issues important to business trial lawyers.
Mike’s community activities include serving on the Executive Board of Covenant House California, a non-profit serving homeless youth throughout California, serving as a member of the Miss Porter’s School Board of Trustees, serving as a Member of the BSA Western Los Angeles County Council Scout Executive Board, serving as an adjunct instructor in the Avon Old Farms School’s Advanced Independent Project program teaching an introduction to law and litigation course to high school students, coaching baseball in the Beverly Hills Little League, and serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster in BSA Troop 223 in the Pacific Palisades.
Mike has been named by Benchmark Litigation as a “Litigation Star.” In 2025 and 2026, the Daily Journal named Mike to its “Top 100 Lawyers” list, which recognizes the most accomplished and influential attorneys in California. In 2023, the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized Mike as one of the top trial lawyers in Los Angeles by naming him a “Leader of Influence: Litigators & Trial Attorneys.” Mike has received an “AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating” by Martindale-Hubbell, has been included in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Lawyers” in the field of Commercial Litigation, and has been named a “Super Lawyer” eight times by Thomson Reuters in the field of Business Litigation. He is a past recipient of the Burton Award for Legal Achievement, which honors the nation’s finest legal writers. Mike is a member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, a California based forum for litigators and judges to meet and discuss issues important to business trial lawyers.
Mike’s community activities include serving on the Executive Board of Covenant House California, a non-profit serving homeless youth throughout California, serving as a member of the Miss Porter’s School Board of Trustees, serving as a Member of the BSA Western Los Angeles County Council Scout Executive Board, serving as an adjunct instructor in the Avon Old Farms School’s Advanced Independent Project program teaching an introduction to law and litigation course to high school students, coaching baseball in the Beverly Hills Little League, and serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster in BSA Troop 223 in the Pacific Palisades.
Recent matter/case highlights
- Lead trial counsel for the plaintiff Gray Development Group in a lawsuit against the master developer of a master planned community. Claims in the suit included breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and tortious bad faith in connection with the master developer’s efforts to block a competing project of Mike’s client. Following a six–week jury trial in Maricopa County Superior Court, a unanimous jury found for the plaintiff on all claims. The damage award—over $110 million—was reported to be the fourth largest in Arizona, ever. The verdict was recognized in The National Law Journal “Top 100 Verdicts” of 2010 issue.
- Lead trial counsel for the plaintiff Placentia Development Company—an affiliate of national homebuilder Toll Brothers—in a jury trial against an oil company concerning the development rights of land in Orange County, California. Following four weeks of testimony, the jury returned a verdict of liability, awarding Mike’s client over $26 million in compensatory damages for breach of contract, nuisance and trespass. And then, following the punitive damages phase of the trial, the jury awarded an additional $10 million in punitive damages. After the trial, the court awarded an additional $5.5 million in discretionary prejudgment interest, bringing the final judgment to nearly $43 million. The verdict was recognized in The National Law Journal “Top 100 Verdicts” of 2019 issue.
- Lead trial counsel for a Los Angeles-based hedge fund in seeking over $200 million in a fraud case against a global investment manager. Mike tried the case in a five-week bench trial in 2016 after the trial court, over Mike’s objection, struck his client’s jury demand. In that trial, Mike successfully defeated nine-figure counter-claims asserted against his client, but lost the fraud claims against the defendant. In 2019, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s decision on the counter-claims, but reversed on the fraud claims, holding that the court erred in striking the jury demand, and remanded to the trial court for a jury trial on the fraud claims. Upon remand, the case settled prior to jury selection on favorable terms.
- Lead trial counsel for a leading Los Angeles-based sports and media-focused investment bank and an SEC registered broker-dealer in a New York-based FINRA arbitration filed by an Australian start-up media company that sought to escape from its obligations to pay Mike’s clients for investment banking services performed in connection with a global capital market fundraising effort during the COVID pandemic. In July 2023, after considering the pleadings, the overwhelming documentary evidence and witnesses’ testimony presented at the 6-day arbitration hearing that established that the Australian company was the party in breach of the contract by refusing to issue warrants to Mike’s clients pursuant to the contract, the FINRA arbitrators issued a final award denying all claims and relief sought by the Australian company, and ordered it to immediately issue warrants that were owed to Mike’s clients.
- Co–trial counsel for plaintiff in a lawsuit involving U.S. Department of Defense contracts to supply fuel to U.S. troops fighting in Iraq through the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Mike’s client—a member of the Jordanian Royal Family—alleged that his partners defrauded him of his share of the profits after he played an instrumental role in establishing a new supply route for U.S. troops that facilitated the procurement of the defense contracts. Following a three–week trial in Palm Beach Florida Circuit Court, an eight-member jury awarded $28.8 million, finding for the plaintiff on all six counts under Florida and Jordanian law. The verdict was recognized in The National Law Journal “Top 100 Verdicts” of 2011 issue.
Key practice areas
- Arbitration
- Commercial disputes
Sector expertise
- Banking
- Construction and materials
- Financial services
- Insurance
Academic qualifications
- J.D. - Seton Hall University School of Law - 1997
- B.A. - Seton Hall University - 1992
Association/network memberships
Association of Business Trial Lawyers
Bar admissions
- New York – 2000
- New Jersey – 1997
- California – 2006
- Pennsylvania – 2022
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York – 2002
- U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey – 1997
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California – 2006
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California – 2006
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California – 2006
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California – 2006
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California Bankruptcy – 2024
- U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – 2012
- U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals – 2022
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York – 2026
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York – 2026
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania – 2026
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania – 2026