Michael C. Griffin

Mr. Griffin has extensive experience representing issuers and underwriters in securities litigation. He has handled dozens of dispositive motions, fact and expert discovery, class certifications and mediations. He also has litigated a variety of issues of first impression regarding parallel state court securities litigation in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Cyan v. Beaver County Employees’ Retirement Fund, including with regard to the applicability of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act discovery stay in New York state court and the first appeal of class certification in Tennessee state court. Mr. Griffin has particular experience representing China-based public companies in U.S. securities litigation and has defended more than 40 such companies, including Baidu, Weibo, DiDi, NIO, iQIYI, Pinduoduo and New Oriental Education.

Mr. Griffin is a seasoned courtroom advocate, having successfully argued dispositive motions and appeals in state and federal courts. He also has been an integral part of multiple trial teams, including for a four-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in a $2 billion residential mortgage-backed securities action and a three-week trial in the Commercial Division of the New York Supreme Court in a billion-dollar contract dispute.

In addition, Mr. Griffin dedicates a substantial amount of time to pro bono work. He helped secure a $6 million settlement from New York City’s Administration of Children’s Services on behalf of a six-year-old boy who went missing from foster care. He also prepared amicus briefs on behalf of the Innocence Project for two appeals to the Connecticut Supreme Court challenging the use of abusive and coercive police tactics during custodial interrogations. Mr. Griffin also argued and won an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on an issue of first impression involving reverse bad faith under Kentucky insurance law.

Mr. Griffin is a member of the Recruiting Committee and Summer Associate Committee in Skadden’s New York office. Outside the firm, he serves on the board of directors for the Columbian Lawyers Association First Judicial Department and on the Young Lawyers Committee for the Historical Society of the New York Courts.