|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
BIOGRAPHIES
|
|
Practice Areas
Public Law
Construction
|
|
| Experience
Michael Simon's practice is comprise of representation of public agencies in all aspects of litigation and in construction related disputes, with particular emphasis on the assessment of contractor's claims and potential fraud and false claims. Michael's relevant experience includes: public contracting claims and litigation, general commercial litigation, and construction-public works projects.
Notable Client Work
Michael has managed a number of large complex actions. For example, since 1999 Michael has served as co-lead counsel for the City of Los Angeles in the litigation arising out of the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant project. These cases involve over $80 million in claims, million of pages of evidence, the implementation of a sophisticated document management system, hundreds of depositions, multiple settlement conferences and claims presentations, and the coordination of over a dozen experts and consultants.
 | Representation of the League of California Cities and its constituent members as amicus in the Amelco Electric v. City of Thousand Oaks in California Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court. In this landmark decision the Supreme Court essentially preserved the requirement for competitive bidding in public works contracts and rejected the construction bar's use of claims of Aabandonment to bypass those bidding requirements. |
| Representation and advise of Rio Hondo Community College during construction of its Science Building Remodel and Expansion, including working closely with both faculty and the College's CM firm to resolve disputes with the construction, advise on methods to accelerate project completion, and to assist the College in best protecting itself from future construction related claims. |
| Representation and advise of El Camino Community College on design, construction and contracting issues and disputes arising out of the college's current $400 million campus-wide expansion and reconstruction program. |
| Representation of the City of Los Angeles against over $80 million in contractor "requests for equitable adjustment" arising out of alleged changes and design errors and omissions during the design and construction of a $168 million expansion to a portion of the City's Hyperion waste water treatment facility. |
| Representation in the prosecution of a multimillion dollar cross claim for the City of Los Angeles against those same contractors for violation of the False Claims Act and for fraud. |
| Representation of the County of Los Angeles in a multi-million dollar public contract dispute with one of the third party administration companies hired by the County to manage the County's self-funded worker's compensation program. |
| Representation involving the prosecution of claims by the County against this same third party administrator to recover million in statutory penalties imposed due to that administrator's actions. |
| Advise for the County on the most cost effective litigation methods and potential statistical analyses to enable County to recover millions in additional statutory penalties from other third party administrators. |
| Representation of the Trustees of the California State University of over $10 million in contractor delay, disruption, over inspection and change order claims arising out of the construction of a major new series of buildings at the Northridge campus, including prosecution of false claim allegations against the contractor. The contractor ultimately abandoned all of its claims. |
| Representation in the defense for the Trustees of the California State University of millions in contractor impact claims allegedly resulting from design defects and owner changes arising out of the construction of the performing arts center and related facilities at the Long Beach campus. |
| Representation in the defense against contractor delay and design defect related claims exceeding $ 10 million on the County of Los Angeles' Emergency Operations Center and successfully, prosecution of cross claims against the contractor for violation of the California False Claims Act which ultimately resulted in the contractor dropping its entire claim against the County. |
| Representation involving the defense of millions in contractor claims against the County of Los Angeles for alleged excessive change order costs and for delays and disruptions for alleged design problems for the hi tech thermal energy storage system constructed as part of the construction of the County's new "Twin Towers" expansion of the Los Angeles Men's Central Jail. |
| Recovery for the County of millions of dollars in damages for defects in the fabrication and construction against the contractors for this same thermal energy storage system. |
| Representation involving prosecuting claims against the architect and structural engineer for design errors and omissions which lead to tens of millions of dollars in change orders on the County's “Twin Towers” project. |
Bar Admissions | California |
Court Admissions | U.S. Supreme Court |
| U.S. District Court, Southern District of California |
| U.S. District Court, Central District of California |
| U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California |
Community Involvement | California State Bar, Litigation Section, Member |
| American Bar Association, Litigation Section, Member |
| Los Angeles County Bar Association, Litigation Section, Member |
|
Education
1989: J.D., University of California, Davis
1985: B.A., University of California, Davis
|
|
|
vCard
Print
PDF
Send via Email
