Michael Pendell focuses his practice on representing people affected by corporate wrongdoing, including whistleblowers, and people harmed by tobacco and dangerous pelvic mesh devices. He also represents pension fund trustees and other institutional investors in securities, consumer fraud, and other complex class actions.
Michael has been involved in the firm’s representation of personal injury clients, including representing people allegedly harmed by tobacco products and thousands alleging harm by dangerous medical devices. He serves as trial counsel in the Engle-progeny litigation pending in Florida for smokers and families of deceased smokers against tobacco manufacturers. In transvaginal mesh litigation, he represents women implanted with Ethicon Gynecare Prolift transvaginal mesh devices and who claim serious injuries and complications from the devices.
Michael also has experience representing institutional and individual investors in claims involving common law fraud pursuant to state securities laws. He played a central role on the litigation team that obtained a seven-figure arbitration award in a case involving secondary liability for an investment advisor’s conduct under the Uniform Securities Act. Michael also represents clients in complex commercial cases regarding claims of fraud, breach of contract, and tortuous interference, as well as representing whistleblowers in multiple cases involving the False Claims Act, including litigation filed against Afognak Native Corp., alleging regulatory violations related to the Small Business Administration.
Michael, along with other Motley Rice attorneys, represented a union pension fund as co-lead counsel in a securities fraud class action to recoup losses against a telecom provider that allegedly provided false information regarding its financial results, causing artificially inflated stock prices that subsequently plummeted when the truth was made known. The settlement is pending court approval.
In addition to his whistleblower and securities casework, Michael is also a part of the firm’s team that represents dozens of states, cities, towns, counties and townships in litigation against several pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and distributors for the alleged deceptive marketing and overselling of highly addictive opioid prescription drugs.
Prior to joining Motley Rice. Michael served as an associate with a Connecticut-based law firm, where he first gained experience in both federal and state courts in such areas as commercial and construction litigation, media and administrative law, personal injury defense and labor and employment matters. He previously taught business law to BA and MBA candidates as an adjunct professor at Albertus Magnus College.
Michael served as a legal intern for the Honorable Randolph F. Treece of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York and as a law clerk for the Major Felony Unit of the Albany County District Attorney’s Office. He served as the executive editor for the New York State Bar Association Government Law & Policy Journal and senior editor for the Albany Law Review, which published his 2008 article entitled, “How Far is Too Far? The Spending Clause, the Tenth Amendment, and the Education State’s Battle Against Unfunded Mandates.”
Awards and Accolades
•Connecticut Super Lawyers
Rising Stars list
2013-2018 Securities litigation; Business litigation; Personal injury - products: plaintiff
•Lawdragon
2019 Lawdragon 500 Plaintiff Financial Lawyers
Related Content
Recent Blog Posts
March 18, 2019
Appropriate time limit to bring a qui tam case? U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in
by: Michael J. Pendell
Related News
February 14, 2020
Law360 names Motley Rice a 2019 Product Liability Practice Group of the Year
January 22, 2020
Motley Rice wins two “Elite Trial Lawyers” Firm of the Year categories
December 10, 2019
2020 “Best Law Firms” ranks Motley Rice
