Michael J. Garvey is Co-Head of the Firm's Business Litigation Practice and a member of the Firm’s Litigation Department in the New York office. Mike is a general commercial litigator and experienced crisis manager who represents the Firm’s institutional clients in a wide range of high stakes, complex commercial disputes.
His clients include KKR, Apax, BC Partners, L3Harris, Berkshire Hathaway, Gardaworld, PAAMCO Prisma, and Amneal Pharmaceuticals.
Mike defends Firm clients in all different forms of investor-related suits and class actions. He recently obtained from the Kentucky Supreme Court a decision dismissing derivative claims against his client that sought billions of dollars in damages. He won early dismissals with prejudice of an antitrust class action suit against Tradeweb, an ERISA class action against L3Harris and a class action suit in Delaware Chancery Court against the Special Committee of the Board of one of the world’s largest publicly traded REITs.
Mike continues to be involved in the largest insurance and reinsurance-related litigations around the world. He is defending multiple insurers in policyholder lawsuits seeking coverage in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. He represents Berkshire Hathaway in a large False Claims Act case relating to Medicare reimbursement issues. Among many other cases, Mike was on the team that successfully tried to a verdict Swiss Re’s claim against WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein that the 9/11 terrorist attack was one occurrence under Silverstein’s $3.5 billion insurance policy.
Firm clients look to Mike to navigate a wide array of other complex disputes and crises. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants in complex cross-border litigation and arbitration, M&A litigation, trademark infringement, contract disputes, bankruptcy litigation and product liability work. Mike also has an active pro bono practice. He regularly represents the Natural Resource Defense Council and serves on the Board of Queens Legal Services, one of the largest providers of civil legal services to low-income people in the United States.
Mike is consistently recognized by The Legal 500 U.S. and Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation as a national and New York “Litigation Star” in Insurance.
Mike joined Simpson Thacher in 1998, served as a law clerk to the Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt, a judge on the New York Court of Appeals, from 1999–2001, returned to the Firm in 2001 and became a partner in 2006. He graduated cum laude from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1995 with a dual degree in English and Music. He graduated cum laude from St. John’s University School of Law in 1998 where he served on Law Review.