Michael S. Lewis

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603-410-4340

Michael Lewis is a results-driven, experienced trial and appellate litigator and is a member of the firm’s Litigation, Tax, and Financial Institutions Practice Groups.

He has served as lead trial counsel in matters before the nation’s federal trial and appellate courts, and before its highest state trial and appellate courts. Michael’s experiences before state and federal courts range from litigation against state and federal enforcement agencies to representing businesses in constitutional law, employment, contract, tort, insurance coverage, and intellectual property disputes, to representing litigants in high-end probate and trust litigation before New Hampshire’s probate courts. He has handled matters on the plaintiff and defense side of civil litigation and has been a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney.

Michael has substantial experience litigating a range of matters involving state and federal constitutional rights, including in the area of free speech, social media, and freedom of religion. He is one of the state’s most successful media-rights and first amendment attorneys.

Michael is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire and the Vermont Law School, where he teaches Sales, Commercial Law and Evidence. His writing has been published widely in popular press and in legal publications. Interest in his academic writing on public and private law matters has caused him to be rated among the top 10% of academic authors on SSRN, the international clearing house for academic writing in these areas.

Prior to joining the firm in February 2013, Michael was an Assistant Attorney General at the New Hampshire Department of Justice from 2007 through 2013, serving in the Department’s Homicide Unit from 2011 through 2013. For his work at the Attorney General’s Office, Michael received the Robert E. Kirby Award from the New Hampshire Bar Foundation in 2012 recognizing excellent advocacy, civility, courtesy, and perspective as a practicing attorney under the age of 35.

Prior to his public service, Michael was a litigation associate at Arnold & Porter, an international law firm based in Washington, D.C. There he represented corporations, officer and directors of corporations, and individuals. From 2004-2005, Michael served as a law clerk to Hon. Paul Barbadoro, Federal District of New Hampshire, where he handled matters arising out of federal securities law, federal patent and trademark law, and state common law.

Michael S. Lewis

Shareholder

Michael Lewis is a results-driven, experienced trial and appellate litigator and is a member of the firm’s Litigation, Tax, and Financial Institutions Practice Groups.

He has served as lead trial counsel in matters before the nation’s federal trial and appellate courts, and before its highest state trial and appellate courts. Michael’s experiences before state and federal courts range from litigation against state and federal enforcement agencies to representing businesses in constitutional law, employment, contract, tort, insurance coverage, and intellectual property disputes, to representing litigants in high-end probate and trust litigation before New Hampshire’s probate courts. He has handled matters on the plaintiff and defense side of civil litigation and has been a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney.

Michael has substantial experience litigating a range of matters involving state and federal constitutional rights, including in the area of free speech, social media, and freedom of religion. He is one of the state’s most successful media-rights and first amendment attorneys.

Michael is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire and the Vermont Law School, where he teaches Sales, Commercial Law and Evidence. His writing has been published widely in popular press and in legal publications. Interest in his academic writing on public and private law matters has caused him to be rated among the top 10% of academic authors on SSRN, the international clearing house for academic writing in these areas.

Prior to joining the firm in February 2013, Michael was an Assistant Attorney General at the New Hampshire Department of Justice from 2007 through 2013, serving in the Department’s Homicide Unit from 2011 through 2013. For his work at the Attorney General’s Office, Michael received the Robert E. Kirby Award from the New Hampshire Bar Foundation in 2012 recognizing excellent advocacy, civility, courtesy, and perspective as a practicing attorney under the age of 35.

Prior to his public service, Michael was a litigation associate at Arnold & Porter, an international law firm based in Washington, D.C. There he represented corporations, officer and directors of corporations, and individuals. From 2004-2005, Michael served as a law clerk to Hon. Paul Barbadoro, Federal District of New Hampshire, where he handled matters arising out of federal securities law, federal patent and trademark law, and state common law.

Education and Bar Admissions

Education:

  • University of California Berkeley, J.D., May 2004
  • Kenyon College, B.A. in Political Science with distinction, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, May 2000

 

Bar Admissions:

  • New Hampshire
  • Massachusetts
  • U.S. District Court, Massachusetts
  • DC Court of Appeals
  • U.S. District Court, New Hampshire
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for DC Circuit
  • U.S. Tax Court

Representative Matters

  • Lead trial and appellate counsel in successful litigation against public agency seeking enforcement action in violation of state and federal constitutional protections against religious discrimination.
  • Lead trial and appellate counsel on behalf of publicly traded medical device company in state and federal trial and appellate courts.
  • Lead trial and appellate counsel in free speech and press litigation on behalf of multi-billion-dollar media company in state court.
  • Lead trial counsel and appellate counsel in commercial litigation establishing pathbreaking law in the area of covenants not to compete in state and federal court.
  • Lead trial counsel in civil rights litigation regarding the rights and welfare of abused and neglected children to protection of state government.
  • Lead trial counsel for New Hampshire business in $40 million civil fraud litigation in United States Tax Court.
  • Lead trial counsel in multimillion dollar probate dispute before the Trust Docket, New Hampshire Probate Court.
  • Lead trial counsel for environmental program in multimillion dollar administrative litigation before New Hampshire Insurance Department.
  • Lead trial counsel for New York business in insurance liquidation proceedings before New Hampshire Superior Court.
  • Lead trial counsel for restaurant industry business in dispute with contractor in New Hampshire Superior Court.
  • Trial counsel to high tech employers in employment and tax litigation before New Hampshire Superior Court.
  • Local trial counsel for tech company in patent litigation before United States District Court, District of New Hampshire.

Community Involvement

Professional Activities

  • Adjunct Professor of Law, University of New Hampshire School of Law and Vermont Law School
  • Volunteer Coach, Concord Recreational Basketball
  • Member—New Hampshire Legal Assistance Board—2016-2022
  • Member–New Hampshire Women’s Foundation Board–2015–2019
  • Member–New Hampshire Judicial Selection Commission, 2014–2016

Noteworthy

  • Book Reviews and Essays Editor of “California Law Review”
  • Recipient of the Robert E. Kirby Award, New Hampshire Bar Foundation for demonstrating traits of civility, courtesy, perspective and excellent advocacy as a practicing attorney under the age of 35 (2012)
  • Named a member of the New Hampshire Union Leader “40 under 40” class of rising stars in New Hampshire (2011)
  • Author of Chapter on “state of mind” exceptions to hearsay rule in the MCLE Practical Manual on Evidence (2010)
  • Author of essay critiquing age limits placed on state judges under the New Hampshire Constitution in the New Hampshire Bar Journal (Spring 2006)
  • Author of book reviews on biographies of Justice David Souter and Attorney David Boies in the New Hampshire Bar News (June 2005, November 2005)
  • Clerkships
  • Law Clerk to Chief Judge Paul Barbadoro, United States District Court, Concord, New Hampshire (August 2004–August 2005)

 

Publications

  • Michael S. Lewis, A closer look at the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed noncompete ban, NH Business Review (Feb. 16, 2022), https://www.nhbr.com/a-closer-look-at-the-federal-trade-commissions-proposed-noncompete-ban/
  • Leah A. Plunkett and Michael S. Lewis The Wages of Crying Life: What States Must Do to Protect Children After the Fall of Roe, 2022 Pepp. L. Rev. 14 (2022)
    Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/plr/vol2022/iss1/2
  • Michael S. Lewis, A Negotiated Instrument: Proposing a Safer Contract for Consumers (And Not Just a Smarter One), 38 Ga.St.U. L. Rev. 403 (2022). Available at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol38/iss2/9
  • Is There A Rational Basis for New Hampshire’s War on Marijuana Anymore?__ U.N.H. L. Rev. __(2022) (forthcoming) (with Cassandra Moran)
  • Education Contracts of Adhesion in the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021 U. Ill. L. Rev. Online 1(2021) (with Leah A. Plunkett)
  • Pervasive Infancy: Reassessing the Contract Capacity of Adults in Modern American, 19 U.N.H. L.Rev. 69 (2020)
  • Evil History: Protecting Our Constitution Through an Anti-Originalism Canon of Constitutional Construction,18 U.N.H. 261 (2020)
  • Senior litigator Mike Lewis, a former homicide prosecutor with NH Department of Justice, provides insight regarding the process of investigating lethal, officer-involved shootings in New Hampshire, in the aftermath of the shooting death of a Gilford teenager (https://pages.pagesuite.com/6/f/6ff20eef-c878-4eec-a735-fe2133e0dd1f/orig.pdf).

Awards and Recognitions