Michael Vives
Overview
Mike Vives is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Mike defends industry-leading pharmaceutical, medical device, technology, and consumer product companies in high stakes mass tort and product liability litigation. He has extensive experience litigating product liability cases, including multidistrict litigation and consolidated state court proceedings, from initial filing through trial and resolution, having served as a member of many trial teams.
In addition to his active trial practice, Mike also has extensive experience serving as coordinating and strategic counsel for a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies in connection with large dockets of cases at both the federal and state levels. As part of these large matters, Mike is particularly adept at developing novel factual and scientific defenses that ensure his client’s themes and objectives are presented in a compelling, jury-friendly manner. Mike’s practice is informed by a long-term secondment at Eli Lilly & Company where he gained valuable first-hand experience about how to efficiently guide companies through the legal risks they face on a daily basis.
Experience
Representative Matters
Prior to joining Kirkland, Mike was involved in the following representative matters:
- Member of the team representing TikTok and ByteDance in multidistrict litigation (MDL) alleging that various social media platforms caused addiction and lead to various mental health injuries to adolescents. Mike focused on expert and fact witness strategy and development as well as trial strategy.
- National coordinating counsel to Janssen Pharmaceuticals in an MDL alleging that long term use of the prescription drug Elmiron results in vision issues. Mike focused on expert, trial, and company strategy.
- National coordinating counsel to Johnson & Johnson in the high-profile talc litigation where it has been alleged that Johnson’s Baby Powder is contaminated with asbestos.
- National and trial counsel for Union Carbide for its historic asbestos docket, resulting in several complete defense verdicts.
- National coordinating counsel to a medical device company in nationwide products liability litigation related to spinal implants.
- Represented multiple pharmaceutical manufacturers in federal investigations and qui tam litigation concerning alleged Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act violations.
- Advised pharmaceutical, medical device and cosmetics manufacturers on FDA regulatory compliance issues concerning product promotion, adverse event reporting, clinical trial design and product labeling.
Prior Experience
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Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- New York
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
Education
- Villanova University Charles Widger School of LawJ.D.magna cum laudeOrder of the Coif
- Villanova UniversityB.A.