At the age of 19, Mike Pennington had already completed college. He then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School the same month he turned 23. Since then, he has established himself as a thought leader on the cutting edge of class action defense, and a go-to lawyer for complex litigation.

Since Alabama’s “tort hell” days in the late 1980s and 1990’s, Mike has litigated in some of the country’s toughest venues. His hard work has earned him a broad national reputation defending class actions and mass actions of every type from California and Nevada to Florida and New York, and dozens of states in between. He also regularly defends high stakes bad faith and sales and servicing practices litigation against insurers, environmental class actions, products liability class actions, the panoply of class actions often faced by financial institutions. 

Mike is the founder and still one of the co-leaders of Bradley's Class Action and Complex Litigation team, and has consistently been listed in The Best Lawyers in America^® for his work in defending class actions, mass torts, and bet-the-company litigation. He has also been recognized in the Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, and Super Lawyers listings of top U.S. lawyers. The reason is simple. He regularly finds unique, creative, and cost-effective solutions to complex litigation.

Mike’s past and present clients know this about him.  Those clients have included Tyson Foods, Monsanto, Nissan, Smile Direct Club, Ditech, Ocwen, Iron Mountain, Ally, GMAC, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Torchmark, Liberty National Life, Globe Life And Accident, Infinity Property & Casualty, Kemper, Rite-Aid, CVS, Bank of America, Great American Insurance Group, United Investors, MAPCO,  CheckSmart, 21^st Century Mortgage, GO Financial, GFC Lending, Deutsche Bank, and KB Homes, among many others. Mike also served as counsel to Alabama’s former Gov. Bob Riley, and has been retained by two of Alabama’s recent attorneys general to advise the state of Alabama and the Attorney General’s Office in important civil matters.

Mike’s peers also know this about him. Mike has spoken on class action litigation and other litigation topics at numerous seminars across the country. He currently chairs both DRI’s Class Action Task Force, dedicated to class action reform, and DRI’s Class Action Specialized Litigation Group, dedicated to honing the skills of class action defense practitioners across the country.  On behalf of DRI, Mike frequently authors amicus briefs on important class action issues in the U.S. Supreme Court, recently spearheaded the drafting of DRI’s comprehensive written comment to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules on the recent Rule 23 amendments, and also provided testimony to the Committee regarding the amendments. He also served as a principal drafter of the DRI’s letter to the House Judiciary Committee supporting five major class action reform efforts contained in proposed legislation known as H.R. 985, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017.

Mike’s other present and past professional memberships include being an attorney-member of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), a member of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel (ALIC), a member of the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (CLM), and a longtime member of both the ABA and DRI.

One more thing. Mike has been a contributor to Bradley’s class and complex litigation blog, “Declassified:  News from the Class and Complex Litigation Battlefront.” He frequently posts his thoughts on important class action cases and circuit splits there. We invite you to subscribe to that blog. It’s free.

Bar Admissions

• Alabama, 1985

• Supreme Court of the United States
• United States Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit
• United States District Court, Northern District of Alabama
• United States District Court, Middle District of Alabama
• United States District Court, Southern District of Alabama

Education

• Harvard Law School, J.D., 1984, magna cum laude
• University of Alabama at Birmingham, B.A., 1981