Michael Rakower

Managing Member

Michael C. Rakower is a founding member of Rakower Law.  His practice focuses on complex commercial disputes including matters relating to executive compensation, ERISA, partnerships, corporate finance and banking, real estate, civil RICO, securities, intellectual property, and professional liability. Some of his notable matters include:

• Representation of hedge funds in dispute over their right to exercise publicly-traded SPAC warrants, yielding an award of $51 million and establishing jurisprudence concerning the SEC’s registration guidelines with respect to delayed and continuing offerings;

• Representation of a former CEO of a major not-for-profit agency in a dispute over the agency’s refusal to pay ERISA-governed retirement benefits valued in excess of $15 million;

• Representation of a former CEO of a publicly-traded company in a dispute over the company’s refusal to honor its obligation to pay ERISA-governed retirement benefits valued in excess of $10 million;

• Representation of a fourth-generation business in a dispute with executives over their entitlement to incentive compensation arising from the $220 million sale of a subsidiary, where the parent company assumed liabilities attributable to the subsidiary as condition of the sale;

• Representation of a private equity executive in a multi-jurisdictional dispute concerning the employer’s refusal to pay a carried interest following the $700 million sale of its portfolio of businesses;

• Representation of a real estate financier in multi-party actions in federal and state courts concerning a $140 million real estate transaction tainted by alleged fraud;

• Representation of family members in a partnership dispute concerning a real estate asset worth $105 million;

• Representation of a United Nations vendor in a federal lawsuit seeking damages in excess of $125 million arising from an alleged bribery and bid-rigging scheme that corrupted the United Nations;

• Appellate representation of an individual in a high-profile will contest concerning an estate with an estimated value of $1 billion;

• Pre-litigation counseling for the benefit of the Iraqi Government in connection with its investigation into multibillion-dollar kickback schemes arising out of the United Nations Oil-for-Food program;

• Representation of an Argentine financial services entity in a dispute concerning treatment of “reverse repo” transactions in bankruptcy;

• Representation of a limited partner of an insolvent hedge fund in a “clawback” dispute with the fund’s trustee;

• Representation of a hedge fund in a dispute concerning the fraudulent sale of securities by a rogue employee.

• New York State Bar Association
  • Executive Committee, Commercial and Federal Litigation Section, 2011-present
  • Co-Chair, Committee on Federal Procedure, 2011-2022
• Federal Bar Council
  • Master, Inn of Court
• American Friends of the Kigali Public Library, 2005-2015
  • Vice President and Board Member, 2005-2015
• The New York Bar Foundation
  • Fellow

• A. 1993, University of Pennsylvania, cum laude
• D. 1999, University of Virginia School of Law
  • Managing Board, Virginia Journal of International Law