Michael Duke

Michael Duke is a founding partner of Elsberg Baker & Maruri.

Michael has represented clients in high-stakes commercial disputes across practice areas, having obtained successful outcomes in cases concerning complex financial instruments, debt restructuring, insurance disputes, mergers and acquisitions, and land use controversies. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Business Litigation and twice in one week in The American Lawyer Litigation Daily as runner-up for Litigator of the Week.

Benchmark Litigation named Michael in its 2024 40 & Under list. Each year, Benchmark Litigation recognizes the nation’s foremost up and coming litigators.

Michael earned his J.D., summa cum laude, from Cornell Law School, where he was an Articles Editor for the Cornell Law Review. He served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Priscilla Richman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to the Honorable P. Kevin Castel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Representative Matters

• Represented the former stockholders of the robotic medical devices company Auris Health against Johnson & Johnson in a ten-day trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery earn-out dispute centered around Johnson & Johnson’s post-merger failures to achieve regulatory and net-sales milestones, resulting in a judgment of over $1 billion for breach of contract and fraud.
• Represented private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management as plaintiff in a breach of contract action against the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, one of Canada’s largest banks, obtaining a $855 million judgment after a thirteen-day trial.
• Defended a major energy company against a claim seeking up to $1 billion, obtaining an award in client’s favor after an eight-day confidential arbitration hearing.
• Represented an ad hoc group of TriMark’s first lien term loan lenders as plaintiffs alleging that TriMark and several of its other lenders violated the governing credit agreement by exchanging the defendant lenders’ first lien term loans for new senior debt. After the court rejected motions to dismiss the plaintiffs’ contract claims, the parties settled the case, with TriMark exchanging the plaintiffs’ debt for new super-senior debt and paying all lenders’ attorneys’ fees.
• Represented an ad hoc group of Mitel’s first and second lien term loan lenders as plaintiffs alleging Mitel and several of its other lenders breached the governing credit agreements by exchanging the defendant lenders’ first and second lien term loans for new senior debt. After removal to the federal court, successfully remanded the case and defeated motions to dismiss.
• Represented New York-based real estate developer in obtaining a unanimous reversal from the Appellate Division, First Department of a trial court decision ordering the developer to tear down numerous floors of its residential building at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
• Represented New Hampshire Insurance Company in obtaining unanimous affirmance from the Appellate Division, First Department on a multi-million-dollar dispute over the coverage of fidelity bonds.
• Represented a major energy company in a confidential international AAA arbitration defeating a claim against client seeking hundreds of millions of dollars.
• Represented the Trustee of holders of Contingent Value Rights in a lawsuit against Bristol-Myers Squibb seeking $6.4 billion arising from Bristol-Myers Squibb’s failure to exercise diligent efforts in obtaining FDA approval of life-saving cancer therapies.
• Represented tenant-advocacy groups in five suits raising federal constitutional challenges to New York’s rent-stabilization laws, successfully moving to dismiss each suit.