Michael K. Kim
Michael Kim is an experienced first-chair trial attorney with significant experience managing all phases of litigation. He focuses his practice on corporate and individual clients in a wide range of complex civil and commercial matters in proceedings in state courts in Northern Virginia and in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Michael regularly litigates complex disputes involving breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets, and other business torts. He has significant experience in litigating disputes involving partnerships and limited liability companies, corporate governance and control, and shareholder derivative actions. Michael has also represented fiduciaries and beneficiaries in will contests and in other varieties of trust and estate litigation.
Practice Areas
Credentials
- University of Miami School of Law (cum laude, 2007)
- Columbia University (cum laude, 2004)
- Virginia State Bar, 2011
- Fourth Circuit, 2016
- Eastern District of Virginia, 2012
- Eastern District of Virginia Bankruptcy Court, 2013
Professional Honors & Activities
Professional Honors
- Arlington Magazine, Top Lawyers, Business/Corporate, (2022-2023)
- Virginia Business Magazine, Legal Elite, Civil Litigation, (2020)
- Virginia Business Magazine, Legal Elite, Business Law (2023)
- U.S. News - Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Commercial Litigation, Education Law, and Trusts and Estates (2021-2025)
- Virginia Super Lawyers, Rising Star, (2013-2017)
- Virginia Super Lawyers, Super Lawyer, (2024)
- Washington DC Super Lawyers, Rising Star, (2014-2017)
- Virginia Business Magazine, Legal Elite, Young Lawyers' Category, (2013)
- Lawyers of Color Magazine, Hot List, Mid-Atlantic Region, (2013)
Professional Activities
Virginia State Bar
- Fifth District Disciplinary Committee, Vice-Chair (Section I), 2020; Member 2018-present
Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia
- Board of Directors, 2016-present
- Chair, Judicial Screening Committee, 2016-present
Representative Cases
- Defended the retired chairman of a private forest products company against claim that a gift of voting stock triggered the company’s option to redeem the stock in order to prevent a change of control.
- Defended the founder and former COO of a transportation and logistics management company against business tort and conspiracy claims after he resigned to join a competitor.
- Defended the trustee of a revocable inter vivos trust against claims that the settlor/husband’s transfer of his stock in a real estate holding company to the trust was void due to lack of capacity and undue influence by the trustee/wife.
- Defended a private corrections company against third party claims for the indemnification and contribution arising out of alleged transmission of HIV from the mother/inmate to fetus during a non-Caesarian Section delivery while inmate was incarcerated at jail managed by the corrections company.
- Defended the manager of two Virginia limited liability companies before the American Arbitration Association agains claims asserted by members of the two companies seeking removal of the manager for alleged material breaches of the companies’ operating agreements and bad faith.
- Obtained preliminary injunction on behalf of a government contracting company specializing in providing information technology services to the federal government against a former employee who had stolen and posted the company’s trade secrets.