Michael Shuster

Mike Shuster is recognized as one of New York’s leading trial lawyers. He represents and advises corporate, financial, and individual clients in complex commercial disputes involving a wide range of legal and business issues. Mike has for several years been recognized as a top litigator in Chambers USA and Benchmark Litigation, with Chambers reporting that he is the “quintessential lead trial lawyer” who “leads by example and excels not only in case strategy but in oral argument and overall court presence,” and that he is “fantastic with clients, has super judgment, and has the right style and charisma for a courtroom litigator.” Market sources shared with Chambers that they trust Mike’s judgment “implicitly.”

Mike has been recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a Top 100 Trial Lawyer for 2023, 2024, and 2025 and a finalist for General Commercial Litigator of the Year for 2023. In 2025, Mike was inducted into Benchmark Litigation’s Hall of Fame. He was also named to Lawdragon’s 2024 500 Leading Litigators in America and 500 Leading Lawyers in America lists and a Litigation Trailblazer by The National Law Journal.

Over its 12-year history, Holwell Shuster & Goldberg has been involved in numerous high-profile cases, often dealing with financial markets, often featuring cross-border elements—and often led by Mike. He has represented, for instance, plaintiffs seeking the return by the Hungarian government of artworks that were looted in World War II and valued at more than $100 million; holders of defaulted Argentine debt in the Southern District of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals; and trustees asserting residential mortgage-backed securities “putback” claims in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Mike was a pioneer in RMBS securities litigation following the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007-08, and his groundbreaking advocacy recovered billions of dollars for bank trustee plaintiffs in cases that determined financial responsibility for massive losses stemming from toxic home loans. His team recovered $2.4 billion in the Lehman Brothers trial alone.

Mike’s clients repeatedly trust him to handle legal conflicts that carry enormous monetary stakes, often measured in ten figures, and threaten their business models and industries. Among other recent victories, Mike played a role in winning a jury verdict for Zunum Aero Inc., finding Boeing liable for $81.3 million for misappropriating substantial trade secrets related to the development of electric and hybrid-electric aircrafts (post-verdict proceedings are ongoing).

In addition to representing his and the firm’s clients, Mike is regularly referred work by other firms in the U.S. and abroad. Before co-founding HSG, Mike was a litigation partner at an Am Law 200 firm and at White & Case, where he served as Global Head of Commercial Litigation.

New York U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York U.S. Supreme Court

McGill University Faculty of Law (LL.B., B.C.L., 1986; Senior Editorial Board, McGill Law Journal)

York University (B.A., 1982)