Michael Gervais

Michael Gervais is a skilled and accomplished trial lawyer who represents both plaintiffs and defendants in all types of high stakes commercial litigation. Gervais has amassed an impressive collection of litigation victories and favorable settlements for clients who vary from Fortune 500 industry leaders to classes of unfairly treated plaintiffs in several national high-profile lawsuits.

LANDMARK LITIGATION

Gervais represented a class of indigent misdemeanor arrestees pro bono in a landmark case to challenge the money bail scheme in Harris County, Texas. Along with Civil Rights Corps and the Texas Fair Defense Project, Gervais’s work helped secure a sweeping preliminary injunction from a Houston federal judge, who struck down Harris County, Texas’ money bail system. The decision focused national attention on the countrywide practice of jailing poor people because they are unable to afford bail when arrested for minor offenses. In the first year in which the injunctive relief was in effect, more than 12,000 people were released from jail.

In another high-profile class action, Gervais represented Flo & Eddie, members of the 1960’s rock group The Turtles, in addition to a class of copyright owners in a case against Sirius XM. In this landmark case it was established under California law, that these owners of sound recordings from before 1972 have the exclusive right to perform those recordings. Under a groundbreaking settlement, Sirius XM agreed to pay at least $25.5 million and royalties under a 10-year license that is valued up to $62 million as compensation for publicly performing without a license Pre-1972 sound recordings. The settlement was approved by the Court, and received widespread media coverage.

Additionally, Gervais won a complete dismissal for energy company, Vitol, of $10 billion antitrust case filed in federal district court in Miami by a litigation trust asserting claims against numerous defendants on behalf of a Venezuelan national oil company. Gervais’ firm, Susman Godfrey, was tapped to take the lead in briefing and arguing the motion to dismiss for the multi-party joint defense group.

Gervais was appointed by the court to serve on the Steering Committee to represent plaintiffs in a Biometric Information Privacy Act class action MDL against TikTok and its parent company. In 2022 this District Court gave final approval to a $92 million litigation-wide settlement. This marked one of the highest privacy-related settlements in the country.

U.S. SUPREME COURT ROOTS

Before joining Susman Godfrey, Gervais served as a clerk at both the Supreme Court and in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. These experiences gave him a unique perspective and a valuable background that supports the success he brings his clients in federal, district and state courts as well as in arbitration and at every level of litigation.

Updated Oct 2025

• In re: Telescopes Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal.) Served as Court-appointed co-lead counsel representing a putative class of indirect purchasers of amateur telescopes impacted by a conspiracy to fix prices and allocate markets for telescopes sold to consumers in the United States. The parties reached a settlement for $32 million, which was approved by the Court.
  
  
• City of Sacramento v. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. et al. Represented the City of Sacramento in its opioid litigation that seeks to hold the major manufacturers and distributors of opioids responsible for the harm they’ve caused to the City. The city opted into various national settlements to resolve litigation.
  IQVIA, Inc. v. Veeva Systems (D.N.J.) Represented Veeva Systems, a CRM and master data management technology company, in federal court antitrust litigation against healthcare data and information technology provider IQVIA, Inc. The case, which involved antitrust issues relating to master data management and alleged trade secrets, settled.
  
  
• PHT Holding I LLC v. Security Life of Denver Insurance Company(D. Colo.) Represented a class of life insurance policyholders in a breach-of-contract suit against Security Life of Denver challenging increases to cost-of-insurance charges. Michael’s team secured class certification of a 31-state class on a state law breach-of-contract claim. On the eve of trial, the parties settled for $30 million, a settlement the Court subsequently approved.
  
  
• Federal Trade Commission v. Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) and Black Knight, Inc.(N.D. Cal./Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Served as counsel to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in proceedings brought by the FTC in federal court in California and in an administrative hearing in the FTC related to ICE’s proposed acquisition of Black Knight. Working closely with ICE and the legal team, Gervais successfully navigated challenges by the FTC to clear the way for the $11.7 billion deal to move forward.

• J.D. - Yale Law School    
• B.A. - American University    
• Law Clerk to the Honorable Stephen Breyer - Supreme Court of the United States    
• Law Clerk to the Honorable Alex Kozinski - United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

• California    
• New York