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Providing quality Legal Representation to our clients for over 30 years.
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Michael L. Kirby
Mike was one of four attorneys who founded the firm which is now Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge. The firm specializes in civil litigation, representing both plaintiffs and defendants. The firm has 18 attorneys, with its offices in downtown San Diego, overlooking Petco Park.
Mike has been actively involved in civil litigation and trials for over 30 years, and is often brought in at the later stages to take the case to trial. Since 1994, he has been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), a national organization of civil trial attorneys, which requires the completion of 20 civil jury trials to verdict. Admission to membership is by vote of the members. He has tried over 40 jury trials, including successful jury trials in Florida and Nevada. He serves on the ABOTA National Board of Directors. He also is a Master in the William B. Enright Inn of Court, which is a chapter of the American Inns of Court. He is listed Best Lawyers®, the leading rating of U.S. lawyers, for business litigation.
Mike's practice is varied, but primarily involves business, partnerships and real estate disputes, and investor cases. As lead counsel for various individual plaintiffs or classes, Mike has obtained total recoveries valued in excess of $275 million. From 1993 to 1998, he was lead counsel for the class action plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against a national securities brokerage firm in San Diego Federal Court, which was later transferred to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, where he remained lead counsel, and obtained a settlement of $91 million for those class members, many of whom were elderly or retired. All investors recovered their losses in full, after payment of all attorneys' fees and costs. More recently, he was lead counsel for a class of vehicle owners and the recovery for class members was valued in excess of $90 million.
Mike represented the plaintiff, a terminated franchisee, in an action in San Diego Superior Court. That trial resulted in a jury verdict of $7.6 million, including $6 million in punitive damages. In another case, he represented a tuna boat captain against a helicopter manufacturer, which resulted in a jury verdict in excess of $3 million for his client. Mike has been lead defense counsel on behalf of a securities broker-dealer in successful defense of investor claims. In 2004, he was defense counsel in a seven week jury trial in San Diego Superior Court which resulted in a defense verdict in favor of his client in a trade secrets case. The same year, he was lead counsel for a California company in an arbitration proceeding in Tampa, Florida, which resulted in defeating the Plaintiff's claims of more than $6 million and recovering $500,000 for his client. In another case, the Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment in favor of his clients, a Michigan bank and its directors, in a business tort case involving alleged damage claims of $30 million.
In addition to his litigation practice, Mike has been involved in many legal organizations. He has served as a founding Director/Vice President of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers of San Diego and was also Chairman of the Southern District of California Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. He is the President of the San Diego chapter of the International Network of Boutique Law Firms, and Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge is the chapter's designated firm for civil business litigation. Mike is a past recipient of the San Diego Consumer Attorneys’ Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award. He has lectured extensively to lawyers on federal civil practice, opening statements, closing arguments, damages and jury instructions.
Mike and his wife, Carla, live in San Diego. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with Carla and his two daughters, and fly fishing with his three sons (all of whom are lawyers) in Alaska and Montana.
 Michael has received an AV® Peer Review rating from the Martindale Hubbell International Law Directory.
The AV® Peer Review Rating shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity. This rating is the result of a peer review system based upon the confidential opinions of practicing attorneys and members of the judiciary.
For more about the AV rating click here.
 Mike has been named by California Super Lawyers magazine as one of the top attorneys in California for 2007, 2008 and 2009. Only five percent of the lawyers in the state are named by Super Lawyers.
The selections for Super Lawyers are made by Law & Politics, a division of Key Professional Media, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN. Each year, Law & Politics undertakes a rigorous multi-phase selection process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent evaluation of candidates by the Law & Politics' attorney-led research staff, a peer review of candidates by practice area, and a good-standing and disciplinary check. Super Lawyers can be found online at superlawyers.com, where lawyers can be searched by practice area and location.
Litigation Practice Areas
- Securities Litigation
- Class Actions
- Business Torts
- Civil RICO
Education
- University of Iowa, J.D., 1970
- University of Iowa, B.A., 1967
Professional Memberships and Activities
- San Diego County Bar Association, Chairman, Federal Court Civil Committee, 1974-1976
- American Bar Association, Member: Sections of Litigation; Securities Litigation Committee; Broker-Dealer Subcommittee
- State Bar of California, Member, Section of Litigation
- The Association of Trial Lawyers of America
- California Trial Lawyers Association
- San Diego Trial Lawyers Association
- American Board of Trial Advocates
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