Suarez, Sheila Michelle

Mike is a shareholder in the firm of Briggs and Morgan, Professional Association. He is based in our Minneapolis office and is a member of the Business Litigation Section. Mike practices principally in the areas of:

• Commercial litigation
• Intellectual property litigation
• Appellate law

Since 1979, Mike has practiced exclusively in the area of commercial litigation. In recent years, his practice has had an emphasis on intellectual property, minority business owner disputes, professional malpractice, construction litigation, and equine litigation and administrative proceedings. Over the last 30 years, Mike has served as lead counsel in the trials of numerous cases in state and federal courts in Minnesota and elsewhere. He has had extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution procedures, including arbitrations and mediations.

Representative recent cases include:

• Obtained jury verdict in favor of the owners of an automobile dealership, in a case brought by a former minority shareholder alleging $5 million in damages for breach of a shareholder agreement (Hennepin County District Court, Minnesota, 2009);
• Obtained $23.6 million arbitration award for a local manufacturer against a component parts supplier for defective parts, confirmed by the United States District Court, Minnesota, in 2008;
• Obtained $2.8 million settlement on behalf of a local food processor, against its insurer, for a product contaminated by insects (U.S. District Court, Minnesota, 2008);
• Obtained summary judgment of non-infringement of a patent owned by Wilson Sporting Goods for eight bat models manufactured by a Minnesota softball bat company (U.S. District Court, Minnesota, affirmed by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in 2008); and
• Obtained settlement on behalf of four South American Arabian horse associations and numerous South American individuals against the Arabian Horse Association, granting purebred status to thousands of horses in South America that were previously deemed to be of “mixed blood” (U.S. District Court, Colorado, 2006).

Mike is admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in Minnesota, as well as the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals; 10th Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. District Court, Colorado; and the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin. Mike has argued a number of cases before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, Minnesota Supreme Court, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Mike is a member of the Hennepin County, Minnesota State, American and Federal Bar associations. He also serves on the board of the Lake Arthur Reclamation Company. Mike is on the Panel of Arbitrators for the American Arbitration Association.

Born in Winona, Minnesota, Mike received his B.A. summa cum laude from Lawrence University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree with honors from the University of Florida College of Law. While attending law school, Mike taught undergraduate business law at the University of Florida. He joined Briggs in 1979.