Overview
Michael is an associate in the firm’s Labor and Employment department. Michael represents businesses in complex employment litigation, including trade secret and restrictive covenant litigation (especially in the sale-of-business context), state and federal wage and hour lawsuits, and executive termination and partnership disputes. Michael also assists businesses in employment-related administrative proceedings, including defending against employment discrimination and wage claims, responding to state and federal wage and hour audits and handling complex unemployment and garnishment matters.
Outside of dispute resolution, Michael assists large and mid-sized employers as strategic outside counsel, counseling employers on sensitive employment issues, conducting critical internal investigations and assisting with high-risk terminations and RIFs.
Services
Practice Areas
Experience
Representative Matters
- Secured dismissal at the motion to dismiss stage of mid-eight-figure equity claim by former executive and leveraged counterclaims to secure payment of a monetary settlement to the client
- Represented telehealth provider in a restrictive covenant and trade secrets dispute with former shareholder and defended against shareholder oppression counterclaims resulting in a favorable pre-trial settlement
- Secured dismissal of all out-of-state plaintiffs in a multi-state FLSA collective action at the motion to dismiss stage based on new Seventh Circuit precedent
- Represented multi-state safety services and compliance provider in a single-plaintiff race discrimination dispute and secured a favorable settlement at early mediation
- Obtained temporary restraining order against former employee based on misappropriation of trade secrets claims
- Conducted urgent internal investigation into executive misconduct spanning dozens of witness interviews in a compressed time frame to provide detailed results for client consideration
- Assisted with aggressive response to California wage and hour lawsuit that led to a dismissal with prejudice and a monetary settlement paid by the plaintiff
- Assisted with arbitration of breach of sale-of-business restrictive covenants to secure liability finding and mid-six-figure damages award
- Compelled individual arbitration of statewide wage and hour collective action involving over one hundred class members
- Obtained dismissal of state administrative wage claim
- Obtained dismissal of state and federal charges of employment discrimination
Credentials
Education
- Online Editor, Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
- Politics, Humanities and Liberal Studies
- magna cum laude
Admissions
- Michigan
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
Recognition
Awards
- The Best Lawyers in America, Recognized as "One to Watch," 2024-2025
- Recognized in the area of Litigation - Labor and Employment