Michael Kelso

Michael Kelso is a skilled trial lawyer with landmark wins for plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes commercial cases across the country. Michael has recovered more than half a billion dollars for plaintiffs and successfully defeated multi-billion-dollar claims for his defense-side clients.

Michael combines strategic vision with skillful execution—compelling writing, thoughtful legal and factual analysis, and gifted courtroom advocacy. This approach has led to success for his clients in federal and state courts and in arbitrations across a broad range of subject areas: antitrust, securities fraud, energy, finance, breach of contract disputes, executive compensation, partnership breakups, even alcohol regulation.

Michael has been repeatedly recognized for his successes by leading legal industry publications. Michael was named a Rising Star by Texas Super Lawyers (2024, Thomson Reuters), a Rising Star by Texas Lawyer (2023, ALM), selected to the Lawdragon 500X – the Next Generation of Leading Lawyers (2023), and recognized with the award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement by a Young Lawyer by the American Antitrust Institute (2019).

PROMINENT WINS

Plaintiff-Side

• Won a $260 million jury verdict for the City of Baltimore in its opioids lawsuit against two distributors of opioid drugs, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, after an eight-week trial. The jury verdict is the only successful verdict any jurisdiction has obtained in opioid litigation against McKesson and AmerisourceBergen. Michael successfully argued against the distributors’ summary judgment motion, examined three witnesses at trial, and twice successfully argued against the distributor defendants’ motions for directed verdict. Before trial, Michael and the opioids team recovered more than $400 million in settlements for the City of Baltimore from other opioids defendants. Read more about the trial and settlements with Cardinal Health, CVS, and Allergan.
• Recovered over half a billion dollars in settlements (so far) in the Libor antitrust case, won class certification* for the direct-purchaser plaintiffs on their antitrust claims, and recently won a significant appellate victory defeating jurisdictional challenges by major foreign-bank defendants. Michael has been recognized for his work on Libor by the American Antitrust Institute with its award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement by a Young Lawyer.  This case has received substantial news coverage including in The New York Times, NASDAQ, New York Law Journal,  Reuters  and Law360*  (*subscription required).
• Argued against and successfully defeated the defendants’ motion to dismiss and then secured a $6.25 million settlement ($4.1 million net of fees and expenses) in a federal securities-fraud class action by Bristow Group Inc. shareholders.

Defense-Side

• Won a major summary judgment victory for Vitol in federal court defeating claims by Puerto Rico’s public utility seeking to nullify six fuel-supply contracts and recover nearly $4 billion in payments. The Court also awarded Vitol a full recovery on its counterclaim ($41.4 million with interest). Michael wrote Vitol’s summary judgment briefs and argued for Vitol at the summary judgment hearing.
• Won complete dismissal of a $10 billion lawsuit brought by a special purpose litigation entity purported to bring Civil RICO and antitrust claims on behalf of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company against more than 40 defendants. Michael successfully led the joint defense group’s legal briefing challenging the plaintiff’s standing to bring the lawsuit.  Less than 9 months after the case was filed, the Magistrate Judge recommended dismissal, and the District Court adopted that recommendation and dismissed the case in its entirety a few months later.

Michael joined Susman Godfrey after clerking for Judge Carolyn D. King of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He graduated with high honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Texas Law Review, was awarded Clerk of the Chancellors Honor Society for earning the third-highest GPA in his class, and won first place in the Thad T. Hutcheson Moot Court Competition.

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