Michele D. Johnson is the Global Chair of Latham’s Litigation & Trial Department, a partner in the Securities Litigation & Professional Liability practice, a former member of Latham’s Executive Committee, and former Managing Partner of Latham’s Orange County office. Consistently recognized as a leading national litigator, she represents industry-leading public and private companies, officers, directors, special committees, and global financial institutions in a wide range of complex securities and commercial litigation.
Ms. Johnson’s recent representations include securities class action trials, special committee engagements in controlling stockholder transactions, multi-jurisdictional litigation including in the Delaware Court of Chancery arising out of solicited and hostile takeover attempts, and investigations and litigation on behalf of special committees and boards of directors related to public company crises. She has significant trial experience involving securities, contract, product liability, unfair business practices, tax, and insurance bad faith trials.
In 2022, Ms. Johnson was named a Law360 Securities MVP, having previously been recognized by Law360 as one of the nation’s 25 Most Influential Women in Securities Law. She was named to the Daily Journal’s 2023 and 2022 Top 100 Lawyers in California list. She was named a Top 100 Trial Lawyer in 2023 and 2022 by Benchmark Litigation, as well as California Securities Litigator of the Year in 2023 and 2021, a Top 10 Women Litigator in US 2023, and among the Top 250 Women in Litigation.
Ms. Johnson is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA in California for Securities Litigation and is recognized as a Leading Lawyer for M&A Litigation by The Legal 500 US. She was named one of the country’s leading 500 lawyers by Lawdragon in 2023 and 2022, and both a Litigation Trailblazer and a Winning Litigator by National Law Journal. She was a recipient of the 2020 California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (CLAY) award by the Daily Journal, and the 2021 Women in Business award by the Orange County Business Journal. The American Lawyer frequently recognizes her as a Litigator of the Week for her repeated successes representing clients in their most high-profile, high stakes matters.
Ms. Johnson has served on the Firm’s Executive, Pro Bono, Associates, and Diversity Committees. She serves on the American Bar Association’s Corporate Laws Committee, on the boards of the Georgetown University Law Center, the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, and the Orange County Bar Foundation’s Project Youth, and on the emeritus board of the Public Law Center and is a past president of the Orange County chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.
Updated Sep 2023
