Jenner & Block Partner Michael McNamara was recognized as a 2024 Leading Commercial Litigator by the Daily Journal. The award honors “the best attorneys working within the broad scope of commercial and bet-the-company litigation across the country.”
Mike’s profile highlights his experience “navigating intricate legal challenges and securing significant victories for his clients,” and his work In Goldberg v. Halloran & Sage LLP et al., and Michael Sanchez v. Lauren Sanchez et al.
In the Woodbridge litigation, Mike successfully resolved a case against a prominent law firm whose former client, the Woodbridge Group of Companies, operated a “ponzi scheme” that defrauded investors out of $1.3 Billion.
“The biggest challenge was based on the huge amount of potential damages at issue, if we did not prevail on the last remaining part of the case, which was not dismissed based on the anti-SLAPP motion. While we felt confident that we could win the case on the merits, we could not ignore a scenario where there would not be enough insurance to cover catastrophic damages. By winning a dismissal of 90% of the claims in our initial anti-SLAPP motion, we were able to effectively posture the case for a settlement on the eve of the oral argument in the Court of Appeal for an amount well within the available policy limits, so that the amount paid by our client for a dismissal ‘with prejudice’ was zero,” Mike said in the profile.
As for the second case, Mike says, “We had to overcome extremely broad and conclusory allegations by the plaintiff, which is always difficult to do in an anti-SLAPP motion.”
Mike also notes the “growing trend of trustees or receivers unfairly targeting law firms in Ponzi scheme cases, often using ‘aiding and abetting’ theories of liability.”
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