Pomerantz LLP

Partner

Michael Grunfeld joined Pomerantz in July 2017 as Of Counsel and was elevated to Partner in 2019.

He has played a leading role in some of the Firm’s significant class action litigations, including its case against Yahoo! Inc. arising out of the biggest data breaches in U.S. history, in which the Firm, as Lead Counsel, achieved an $80 million settlement on behalf of the Class.  This settlement made history as the first substantial shareholder recovery in a securities fraud class action related to a cybersecurity breach. Michael also plays a leading role in many of the Firm’s other ongoing class actions.

Michael is an honoree of Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List 2020 and 2021, granted to a few of the “best and brightest law firm partners who stand out in their practices.” He was named a 2019 Rising Star by Law360, a prestigious honor awarded to a select few top litigators under 40 years old “whose legal accomplishments transcend their age.” In 2020 and 2021, Michael was recognized by Super Lawyers® as a Top-Rated Securities Litigation Attorney;” in 2018 and 2019 he was honored as a New York Metro Rising Star.

Michael leads 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. At issue is an activist investor’s attempt 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 June 2021, the district court handed down an important victory for shareholders when it granted J&J’s and the Intervenor’s Motion to Dismiss.

Michael is the co-author of a chapter on damages in securities class actions in the LexisNexis treatise, Litigating Securities Class Actions.

Michael served as a clerk for Judge Ronald Gilman of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and as a foreign law clerk for Justice Asher Grunis of the Israeli Supreme Court. Before joining Pomerantz, he was a litigation associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

Michael has extensive experience in securities, complex commercial, and white-collar matters in federal and state courts around the country. In particular, Michael has represented issuers, underwriters, and individuals in securities class actions dealing with a wide variety of industries. He has also represented financial institutions and individuals in cases related to RMBS, securities lending, foreign exchange practices, insider trading, and other financial matters.

Michael graduated from Columbia Law School in 2008, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and Submissions Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review. He graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Government, magna cum laude, in 2004.

Michael is admitted to practice in the State of New York, the Second, Third, Fourth, and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of Colorado.

Columbia Law School