Michael Ehrenstein | Miami Lawsuit & Dispute Lawyer

Mike is a creative, strategic, and highly disciplined warrior lawyer, happiest in the fight to advance his clients’ interests. Mike’s approach to trial is heavily influenced by his deep martial arts background which provides clients unique technical, tactical and strategic options to win. Through three decades of trial practice, Mike developed the refined judgment to choose the right option at the right time: to confront an adversary with overwhelming force, use a party’s momentum against him, or exercise equanimity to seize opportunity from disaster. As a true martial artist, Mike operates with disarming calm, confident in his ability to destroy when necessary, and content to be underestimated by adversaries with little actual trial experience. His martial arts background offers a philosophical and practical under-pinning for trial work that one-dimensional litigators lack. He is a most courteous and yet most dangerous lawyer. If you are in the fight of your life in court, you want Mike on your side.

Mike’s small but concentrated trial practice delivers high energy and remarkable results. For example, applying one martial arts maxim (“apply the most effective weapon to the most vulnerable target”), Mike obtained dismissal of claims against an African nation arising from a power generation dispute. In that case, a global energy firm engaged in the business of design, installation, service and operation of power plant systems hired a large US law firm to sue the Republic of Angola in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The plaintiff claimed that Angola failed to pay in excess of $52 million due for operation and maintenance of two of Angola’s power plants. Relying on its firm’s reputation and intimidation tactics, plaintiff aggressively threatened Angola with prejudgment attachment of local assets and a premature effort to obtain summary judgment. Rather than capitulate, Angola engaged Mike. In close coordination with local counsel for Angola, Mike quickly and completely avoided the lawsuit by applying the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (the most effective weapon) to establish the jurisdictional infirmity (the most vulnerable target) of the plaintiffs’ claims. As a result, Mike successfully persuaded the plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit.

As he did for Angola, Mike has applied martial arts wisdom to benefit his clients throughout his legal career. He has defended clients from hundreds of millions in liability exposure, and captured extraordinary recoveries for clients involved in a wide range of disputes, from aircraft engines to agriculture, from architects to attorneys’ malpractice claims. While Mike has tried cases in numerous substantive areas, his concentrations include international disputes, energy, aerospace, transportation, professional malpractice, real estate, construction and healthcare.

Position	Organization	Location	Duration
Attorney	Ehrenstein Sager	Miami, FL	Present

School	Degree	Major	Graduation
University of Miami School of Law	J.D.	Law School	1990
Middlebury College	Bachelors	Philosophy	1987

State / Court	Date
Florida	1990

• United States of America Goju Federation | 6th Dan
  Litigation Counsel of America | Senior Fellow
  Peter Perlman Service Award recipient
  LCA Trial Master Certification
  Trial Law Institute
  Diversity Law Institute of the Litigation Counsel of America
  Complex Commercial Litigation Institute | Treasurer
  Litigation Counsel of America Hall of Fame Selection Committee | Member
  Operation Homefront, Regional Advisory Board working to build strong, stable and secure military and veterans’ families
  Liaison to Miami Veterans’ Court
  Abacus Worldwide |  Board Member, helped to start and grow a broad international alliance of accounting and legal professional
  Florida Association of Managing Partners | Member
  Middlebury College | Alumni Interviewer
  Greater Miami Hillel | Former Outside Board Member and Chair
  South Florida Aviation Maintenance Council | Member
  Greater Miami Aviation Association | Member

• Florida Super Lawyers
  South Florida Legal Guide
  South Florida Business Journal
  AV® Preeminent™ rated by Martindale-Hubbell
  Top Rated Litigator by American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel Magazines
  The National Trial Lawyers Top 100

• Africa Investor State Disputes: Gleaning Order from the Chaos, Distinguished Guest Speaker at the Litigation Counsel of America Conference in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina, 2019
  Numerous CLE presentations regarding; Conflicts of Interest, Deposition Preparation and Tactics
  The NOPEC Non-Event, Africa Oil & Power, August 23, 2018
  Small Firms Represent African Oil and Power Entities with Big Results, Africa Oil & Power, July 25, 2018
  Sleeping Jurors: A Trial Lawyers Nightmare, Distinguished Guest Speaker, Renaissance Symposium, New York, 2018
  Disaster Equanimity and Opportunity: The Virtue of Composure in Crisis, Distinguished Guest Speaker, Renaissance Symposium, San Francisco, 2018
  8 Terms Aerospace Transactions Should Include, Avionics Magazine, July 21, 2017
  Trial Aikido: Let Your Opponent Dictate His Demise, Distinguished Guest Speaker, Renaissance Symposium, Harvard Club, New York, 2017
  The Perfect Expert, Distinguished Guest Speaker, Litigation Counsel of America Conference at Amelia Island, 2016
  Professionalism within Client Issues, Moderator, Complex Commercial Litigation Institute, 2015
  The Use of Technology Assisted Review, Distinguished Guest Speaker at the Litigation Counsel of America Conference in Newport Beach, California, 2014
  Predictive Coding Levels the Playing Field, Distinguished Guest Speaker at Litigation Counsel of America Conference, Santa Barbara, California, 2013
  The Tao of Cross Examination, Distinguished Guest Speaker at Renaissance Symposium, Telluride, Colorado, 2012
  Legal Issues Surrounding the Development and Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Distinguished Guest Speaker, Paris Air Show, Paris France, January 2004
  Chapter 2A of Secured Transactions in Florida, 1990—a Florida Bar Publication
  Michael David Ehrenstein. A Moralistic Approach to the Ozone Depletion Crisis. 21 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 61 1 (1990) Available at: http://repositorv.law.miami.edU/umiali7vol21/iss3/5

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	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm

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