Susman Godfrey partner Michael Kelso has been named a 2026 Law360 Rising Star in Trials, recognizing him among the nation’s top attorneys under 40 for his role in major courtroom victories across the country. In a profile published by Law360, Kelso is recognized for his work helping secure significant jury victories in some of the country’s most closely watched mass-tort lawsuits.
Kelso played a key role in representing survivors of the devastating 2020 Labor Day Fires in Oregon in litigation against PacifiCorp. Over three trials in three months in 2025 and 2026, Kelso helped secure judgments totaling more than $400 million for wildfire survivors. He selected the jury in two of those trials, presented over a dozen plaintiffs at trial, and delivered two closing arguments.
Law360 also highlights Kelso’s work representing the City of Baltimore in its landmark opioid litigation, which resulted in a $266 million jury verdict against opioid distributors McKesson and AmerisourceBergen following an eight-week trial. Kelso successfully argued against the defendants’ summary judgment motion, examined key witnesses at trial, and twice defeated motions for directed verdict. The verdict remains the only successful jury verdict obtained by a jurisdiction in opioid litigation against McKesson and AmerisourceBergen.
These victories are the latest in a career that has seen Kelso recover more than half a billion dollars for plaintiffs while also successfully defending clients against multibillion-dollar claims for defendants. His practice spans antitrust, securities, energy, finance, and complex commercial litigation.
Read Law360’s full profile of Kelso here.
