Cooley Builds Litigation Practice With Baker McKenzie Partner

Cooley is bringing on the co-chair of Baker McKenzie’s North America class action practice as it builds out its litigation strength in California.

Teresa Michaud, who also leads Baker McKenzie’s global technology, media and telecom industry group, is joining Cooley as a partner in Los Angeles.

Michaud’s addition is the latest high-profile hire for Cooley’s litigation group. Earlier this month the firm brought on former federal prosecutor and Capitol Hill veteran Susanne Grooms to launch its congressional investigations practice in Washington.

“This continues our long campaign, and very successful campaign, to add really strong litigators to the offerings that are most important to our clients,” said Mike Attanasio, chair of Cooley’s global litigation department, in an interview.

The long-time Baker McKenzie partner said she had been watching Cooley’s recent hires of female litigators, including former chief of SDNY’s public corruption unit Rebekah Donaleski and former Buckley financial services litigation partner Michelle Rogers, and jumped at the opportunity to join the firm.

“It’s such a dynamic and diverse team that I really wanted to be a part of,” said Michaud, a founding member of Baker McKenzie’s Los Angeles office, which opened in 2018.

Though many of Cooley’s recent litigation hires have been on the East Coast, Michaud’s hire is an investment and commitment to California and its office in downtown LA, which is “a greenfield of growth opportunity,” Attanasio said. “This is another step in the process of continuing to build” the firm as a litigation destination, he said.

Michaud works with clients on all aspects of dispute resolution, including class actions and privacy litigation. Over the course of her nearly 18-year career, she has advised on multijurisdictional contract disputes as well as consumer class actions under California and federal law.

She represented Sony Interactive Entertainment in a consumer class action case related to the company’s gaming console PlayStation 5. She also was a part of the team that represented Google Payment Corp. and Google LLC on various matters.

“One of the things that I’m very passionate about is helping clients who are themselves disruptors or innovators deal with new theories of liability that they happen to face, especially from the class action perspective and consumer protection laws,” Michaud said. “Cooley is really well poised to lead the way in those precedent setting cases.”