Michael Bell

Mike Bell is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Houston office. Mr. Bell focuses his practice on complex business litigation and arbitration.

Mr. Bell has extensive experience in handling disputes involving contracts, Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), fraud, fiduciary duty, corporate and partnership duties, business torts, energy, lender liability, real estate and insurance recovery.

Representative Experience

• Represented a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) corporation as lead trial counsel in a $50 million suit involving allegations of breach of contract, fraud, unfair competition, business disparagement and tortious interference; after a three-week federal court jury trial, a judgment was entered in favor of the client on all issues
• Represented financial assets manager and broker-dealer as lead trial counsel in $10 million suit involving claims of fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty; after a three-week jury trial in Harris County, Texas, state court, a verdict was returned in favor of the client on all issues
• Represented a Houston lending institution as lead trial counsel in a $10 million suit involving claims of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, lender liability and breach of contract; after a four-week jury trial in federal court, a verdict was returned in favor of the lending institution
• Represented a NYSE corporation as lead trial counsel in a $70 million suit involving claims of breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, fraud and tortious interference in connection with an offshore oil refinery; after discovery and pre-trial motions, the case was settled favorably for the client
• Represented a former CEO as defendant in a multimillion-dollar suit involving claims of usurpation of corporate opportunity and breach of fiduciary duty; after discovery and pre-trial motions, case was settled favorably for the client for less than the cost of defense
• Represented a creditors' trust as plaintiff in California state court and in a parallel arbitration proceeding in claims based upon corporate insurance policies; obtained multimillion-dollar insurance recovery for the client
• Represented a group of banks as defendant in a lender liability suit brought by borrower seeking damages in excess of $20 million; settled favorably for the client
• Represented a steel distributor as defendant in a claim seeking in excess of $15 million based upon a contract to purchase steel; settled favorably for the client for less than the cost of defense
• Represented a Brazilian company as plaintiff in a New York arbitration proceeding involving a multimillion-dollar claim against a Singapore company for breach of an ethanol supply contract; settled favorably for the client
• Represented an oil and gas operator as plaintiff in suit claiming breach of contract and negligence by well servicing company; after a two-week trial, judgment of approximately $2.5 million was entered in favor of the client
• Represented a financial advisory firm as lead trial counsel in a $5 million breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and breach of contract suit involving claims of asset mismanagement; after a three-week jury trial, a verdict was returned in the clients' favor on all issues