Overview

Michael Ware litigates securities, antitrust and international cases in state and federal courts across the United States. He also represents companies and individuals in arbitrations and in investigations conducted by the SEC, the Department of Justice, the New York County District Attorney and other authorities.

Since Michael joined the firm in 1999, his international public and private law engagements have resulted in a number of landmark decisions. His antitrust litigation experience ranges from hard-core cartels to price maintenance. In recent years clients have called on him to handle a wide variety of matters relating to the US residential mortgage crisis, often in litigation involving mortgage-backed securities and other complex financial instruments.

Michael has defended scores of alleged class actions arising in various areas of substantive state, federal and international law, and he has handled more than a dozen centralization proceedings before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

From the earliest stages of his career Michael has had success in trusts-and-estates litigation, chiefly prosecuting and defending will contests and trust and estate accountings. Recent work in Surrogate’s Court, New York County, has included dismissal of a compulsory trust accounting petition, defeating a petition for New York letters of temporary administration in connection with the overseas estate of an internationally prominent figure, and the dismissal of a will contest after examinations of the attesting witnesses. Another recent engagement included service as an advisor to a well-known family seeking to maintain its beneficial influence over the substantial foundation established by the family’s late patriarch.

Areas of Focus

Practices

Spoken Languages

  • English

Experience

  • In re Vitamins Antitrust Litigation. Court-appointed defense liaison counsel in major cartel litigation.  Conceived, organized, briefed and argued all defendants’ successful response to a novel request by plaintiffs in collateral litigation in Canada to obtain access to discovery materials generated under seal in the MDL proceedings.  In re Vitamins Antitrust Litig., 2001 WL 34088808 (D.D.C. March 19, 2001); VitaPharm Canada Ltd. v. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., [2001] 6 C.P.C.5th 245 (Ont. Super. Ct. Just.), aff’d, [2002] 159 O.A.C. 204 (Div’l Ct.), aff’d sub nom., Ford v. F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., [2003] 223 D.L.R.4th 445 (Ont. Ct. App.), appeal dismissed, [2003] 194 O.A.C. 199 (note) (Can.).  Briefed and argued first-impression state-law damages question resulting in the substantial reduction of all defendants’ exposure.  In re Vitamins Antitrust Litig. (Kellogg Co. v. BASF AG), 259 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2003).  Briefed and argued significant pre-CAFA appeal on diversity jurisdiction over class actions.  Crawford v. F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., 267 F.3d 760 (8th Cir. 2001).  Coordinated and briefed successful dispositive motions in a number of state-law cases.  E.g., In re Vitamins Antitrust Litig. (Southeast Milk, Inc. v. F. Hoffman-La Roche, Ltd.), Misc. No. 99‑197 (TFH) (D.D.C. Dec. 13, 2004) (Florida), aff’d, 183 Fed. Appx. 1 (D.C. Cir. 2006); In re Vitamins Antitrust Litig. (Greene v. F. Hoffman-La Roche, Ltd.), 2001 WL 849928 (D.D.C. April 11, 2001) (Tennessee), appeal dismissed, No. 01‑7093 (D.C. Cir. 2001); In re Vitamins Antitrust Litig. (Basic Drugs, Inc. v. BASF Aktiengesellschaft), 2001 WL 34088809 (D.D.C. March 19, 2001) (Ohio); In re Vitamins Antitrust Litig. (Watkins v. F. Hoffman-La Roche, Ltd.), 2001 WL 34088807 (D.D.C. March 13, 2001) (Alabama).  Contributed to the briefing and preparation of the case in which the Supreme Court largely barred U.S. antitrust claims by foreign-market purchasers.  F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A., 542 U.S. 155 (2004).
  • In re Chocolate Confectionary Antitrust Litigation.  Lead counsel for Canadian distributor dismissed before the onset of discovery from more than 60 class and non-class actions alleging price-fixing in the US chocolate bar market.
  • In re South African Apartheid Litigation.  Lead counsel for Fortune Global 100 company in litigation alleging that international companies operating in Apartheid-era South Africa thereby committed offenses against international law actionable under the Alien Tort Statute.
  • In re Austrian & German Bank Holocaust Litigation.  Principal author of petition leading to a rare writ of mandamus from the Court of Appeals requiring District Court to grant plaintiffs’ motion to discontinue Holocaust-related claims in deference to the multinational Berlin Accords.
  • Peregrine v. Segal.  Successful action by international commercial interests damaged in part by acts of the Burmese junta.
  • SEC v. Jones and Daidone.  Summary judgment on the eve of trial in enforcement action concerning investment advisors’ dealings with mutual funds.  476 F. Supp. 2d 374 (S.D.N.Y. 2007).
  • Uni-Rty v. HSBC.  International lender-liability action settled for a nominal payment during jury trial.

Perspectives

Events

  • 2008

    Attorney-Client Privilege In Corporate Investigations

    Association of the Bar of the City of New York

  • 2006

    Coordinating Simultaneous Private Antitrust Litigation in the United States and Canada

    National Competition Law Section, Canadian Bar Association, Gatineau, Québec

News

Education

Yale University, BA

Fordham University School of Law, JD

Admissions

  • New York

Court

  • US District Court for the Northern District of Texas
  • US District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • US Supreme Court
  • US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
  • US District Court for the District of Columbia
  • US District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit