Michael A. Lynn practices in Kaye Scholer's Litigation Department with an emphasis on complex commercial litigation, including merger- and acquisition-related litigations, defense of shareholder derivative and securities fraud class actions, actions involving fraud in the purchase and sale of corporate securities and assets, fraudulent conveyance litigation, and bankruptcy and real estate litigation.
He is particularly experienced in defending Fortune 500 corporations against shareholder litigation and in evaluating potential damages claimed by plaintiffs in securities class actions. Mr. Lynn has represented financial institutions, oil companies, real estate development companies, financial advisors and investment banks.
Mr. Lynn has also published several articles concerning liability and damage issues in securities litigations in the New York Law Journal and The National Law Journal and two articles relating to real estate litigation in the New York Law Journal. His law review article published in 1982 concerning the use of the "fraud on the market" presumption in securities fraud cases was cited by the United States Supreme Court with approval in Basic v. Levinson, Inc., 485 U.S. 224 (1988).
Representative Matters
- Trial counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors for Color Tile against Investcorp, the controlling shareholder of Color Tile, for various breaches of fiduciary duty, causing Color Tile to make an acquisition at an unfair price and causing its bankruptcy. The lawsuit also included as defendants, Investcorp's affiliated financial advisor, certain Investcorp officers who were members of Color Tile's Board, and Investcorp's auditors. The lawsuit resulted in a very favorable settlement four days before a jury trial was scheduled to begin.
- Trial counsel to Legal Representative for Future Claimants in the Owens Corning bankruptcy in a four-week trial concerning substantive consolidation and elimination of upstream guarantees of bank debt and a two-week trial estimating Owens Corning's present and future asbestos liability. Successful in obtaining an approximate $7 billion estimation of liability.
- Trial counsel to Legal Representative for Future Claimants in the Armstrong World Industries bankruptcy, including a one-week trial estimating the company's present and future asbestos liability. Successful in obtaining an approximate $3.1 billion estimation of liability.
- Trial counsel to Fidelity Funding in a multi-defendant fraud and RICO litigation, which concluded in a favorable settlement to the client and criminal prosecution of the principal defendants.
- Trial Counsel to Staples, Inc. in a lease termination action, which concluded in a decision in favor of Staples and an award of $200,000 in attorneys fees against the plaintiff-landlord.