Michelle Douglas joined Kalbian Hagerty in 2006 after previously practicing in California and Arizona. She has been practicing since 1997 and has represented domestic and foreign clients before state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels and in arbitration in the U.S. and abroad.
Michelle maintains a multi-jurisdictional practice, focusing on complex and high-stakes commercial and transborder litigation. She has worked on cases involving business and contract disputes, personal injury claims, construction, and cases of all sorts involving complicated jurisdiction and foreign law issues. She represents individuals, small and large corporations, and foreign governments, including their embassies and agencies.
Michelle has tried jury cases in both state and federal courts in numerous jurisdictions and has briefed appeals before state and federal appellate courts in California, Arizona, New York and Virginia. Among her significant achievements while with Kalbian Hagerty are the following:
- She has been a core member of a litigation team representing embassies, foreign financial institutions, and central banks of numerous Middle Eastern countries as well as members of the royal families of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in multi-million-dollar litigation;
- She represents clients involved in litigation arising under the Alien Tort Statute and the Anti-Terrorism Act, including recent amendments made by the adoption of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) and the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018 (ACTA);
- She was a key member of the team that obtained a voluntary dismissal on behalf of the sole defendant in a $9 billion lawsuit;
- She obtained a $25 million judgment on behalf of a fraud victim;
- She has litigated numerous personal injury lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs that resulted in settlements of $1 million or more;
- She has won appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals in numerous circuits as well as the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; and
- She is a contributing author to “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Multinational Anti-Bribery Initiatives” in the Construction Law Handbook, Second Edition (Wolpers Kluwer), since 2015.
Michelle received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and her law degree from the Washington College of Law at American University where she served as Editor-in-Chief of WCL’s human rights journal, The Human Rights Brief.
