Michael E. Lopez, Ph.D.
Partner
EDUCATION:
UCLA School of Law, 2001
Graduated 10th in class
Order of the Coif
UCLA Law Review, Articles Editor
Wesleyan University, 1996
(B.A., Philosophy, Medieval History)
UCLA Dept. of Philosophy, 2013 (Ph.D., Philosophy)
Michael E. Lopez is an experienced litigator who has focused his practice primarily on the areas of insurance coverage litigation, appellate practice, business litigation (including trade secrets and fiduciary duty disputes), and legal ethics and malpractice issues. He serves as outside general counsel to several different companies, and also has experience in commercial contract litigation and construction defect litigation. His practice has had a heavy emphasis on novel and/or complicated legal issues, and he has often been brought into cases already in progress in order to draft or consult on appellate briefs and dispositive motions. His approach to cases is informed by a firm conviction that the client's interests and goals are far more important than the attorney's ego or what may have worked in the past on other cases. In order to ensure that his clients’ goals remain the key focus, he works very hard to maintain a civil and cordial relationship with opposing counsel and to prevent litigation from deteriorating into a personal feud between the attorneys. He also takes pride in being honest with clients about when their paying him to pursue a case may not be the best course of action.
Michael began his career at Quinn Emanuel in Los Angeles, where, as developer's counsel, he was the primary case management coordinating attorney for multiple large-scale construction defect cases involving dozens of parties and hundreds of plaintiffs. He also worked on entertainment contract cases and general commercial litigation.
In 2004, he joined the insurance department of Irell & Manella LLP, in their Newport Beach office. There, he worked on a number of large-scale coverage matters as well as a range of business litigation cases. He left Irell in 2007 and took a temporary sabbatical from the law in order to obtain a PhD in Philosophy at UCLA, where he worked primarily in ethics, philosophy of education, philosophy of law, value theory, and Medieval philosophy. After completing his coursework and while working on his dissertation, he opened up his own part-time practice.
Shortly after receiving his degree, he went to work at the newly founded firm of Greenberg Gross in Costa Mesa. There, he focused primarily on appellate issues, business litigation, and the execution of complicated settlements. He also worked to obtain insurance financing for his clients' litigation. He joined Mr. Bark and Mr. Wilbert in practice as a partner at Wilbert Bark LLP in November of 2016, and founded Lopez, Bark & Schulz with his partners in May of 2017.
Michael's experience includes:
Outside general counsel to a green-energy fuel startup company, as well as several import and distribution companies.
Obtained discovery sanctions dismissing millions of dollars of claims against a major housing developer.
Recognized his client was winning, and sat down after just two minutes’ oral argument in the Court of Appeal. His client was victorious.
Uncovered billing fraud in a construction/mechanic’s lien case and forced the Plaintiff contractor to pay the Defendant in order to settle the case.
Brought in at the last minute to deal with an adverse Anti-SLAPP Court of Appeal decision against his client, and turned it into a victory after winning a second appeal on the motion.
Successfully turned a potential tort case loss into an insurance coverage case victory through a negotiated settlement with an assignment of claims/covenant not to execute with the underlying claimant, and subsequent litigation against the carrier leading to settlement.
Obtained dismissal with prejudice in favor of client in a fraud and breach of fiduciary duty case through aggressive early discovery practice and threat of sanctions for bringing Complaint.
Successfully represented a bio-tech start-up in re-negotiating a license agreement with a national university for patented technologies.
Negotiated a substantial settlement with an insurer in an industrial pollution case despite a significant delay in tender.
Together with his partners, negotiated a mid-seven-figure wrongful death settlement with an insurer without having to file a complaint.
Represented a major casino operator in pursuing insurance recovery after Hurricane Katrina.
Obtained a reversal of a trial court's denial of a motion to disqualify opposing counsel that was brought over a year and a half into litigation, leading to settlement of a heavily litigated re-packing/licensing dispute.
Represented a California county in an insurance coverage action with respect to environmental claims worth millions of dollars.
On the eve of trial in a case involving hundreds of thousands of dollars of fire damage to custom sports vehicles, he ruthlessly took advantage of a flawed Statutory Settlement Offer (Section 998) to force the insurer for the defendanta to pay his clients the full amount they were owed.
Represented numerous law firms as advisory counsel with respect to insurance coverage and negotiation issues, both for their clients and the firms themselves.
Represented a major asbestos manufacturer in insurance claims in coordination with bankruptcy proceedings.
Primary researcher and drafter of a summary judgment strategy that was upheld on appeal, eliminating a legal malpractice claim worth over $12 million based on lack of causation and damages.
When a client was being sued by former insiders, successfully disqualified opposing counsel despite lack of a formal attorney-client relationship.
Legal Publications
A Normative Theory of Nontortfeasor Liability and Taxonomy for Exemplary Damages, 48 UCLA L.Rev. 1017 (2001). Article has been cited by the Hawaii appellate court and Witkin's.
Nimmer on Copyright, Chapter 19C (Insurance) (2006) - Co-Author and primary drafter
Accolades
Dr. Lopez was named as a Southern California "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers in 2007.
Interests & Hobbies
Before becoming a father of three somewhat late in life, Dr. Lopez was an accomplished second tenor, a former competitive fencer (saber and foil) who was named the 2001 UCLA Team MVP, a designer of board and card games, and an avid collector and consumer of wine and cinema. He also was a reasonably skilled amateur at most forms of poker. Now he practices law, raises his kids, and dreams of having time for such things.