Michael Daly

Michael P. Daly has spent nearly twenty years defending, counseling, and advocating for clients that interact with consumers. His practice focuses on defending class actions and other complex cases, handling critical motions and appeals in adversarial and administrative matters, and maximizing the defensibility of marketing and enforceability of consumer contracts.

He is a vice-chair of the firm’s Class Actions practice; the senior editor of its TCPA Blog; a leader of its TCPA, Consumer Contracts, and Retail Industry teams; and a charter member of its Wellness Committee. Mike is known for writing with a singular clarity of language and purpose. He believes that briefs should make confusing things clear, not make clear things confusing.

His goal for every engagement is to tailor the argument to the audience and to explain—as simply and succinctly as possible—why his client is right not only as a matter of fact and law, but also as a matter of policy and equity. He has drafted and consulted on critical briefs at all stages of civil litigation, and has taught a firmwide class on persuasive writing for more than a decade.

Mike also is known for championing civil rights and civil justice. His public interest work has protected the rights of the disabled and the incarcerated and prevented the misuse of our laws and our courts.

For example, one recent matter ended decades of discrimination by agencies that had refused to make information about public benefits programs available in formats that could be accessed by the visually impaired.

Another recent matter convinced a state supreme court—by making a statutory construction argument that no other party had made—that a consumer protection statute cannot be invoked by predatory professional plaintiffs who have suffered no harm.

But above all, Mike is known for his unflagging commitment to his clients. He makes it his business to know his clients’ business, to identify potential problems even before they do, and to find solutions that are both effective and cost-effective.

He knows that clients need advice that is not only reliable but also actionable, and he is in his element partnering with his clients to find the most practical solutions to the most intractable problems.

Experience :

Class actions pose exceptional challenges and threaten extraordinary damages. And they are subject to rules—jurisdictional, procedural, and even ethical—that are often very different from the ones that apply in other actions. In this arena more than most, experience truly is the best teacher.

Mike handles critical motions and appeals in all manner of adversarial and administrative matters, including representing trade associations and public interest organizations as amicus curiae on behalf of their members.

His work has resulted in rulings dismissing actions, denying class certification, enforcing arbitration agreements, denying petitions to permit administrative class actions, entering judgment notwithstanding a design defect verdict, absolving a manufacturer of successor liability, enforcing an exclusion of liability in an asset purchase agreement, ordering new trials on damages and statute of limitations defenses, and preventing uninjured plaintiffs from seeking civil penalties under a consumer protection statute, among others.

In this era of “gotcha” class actions, plaintiffs have taken to targeting any arguable violation of any arcane regulation—no matter how innocent or inconsequential—and extorting settlements by filing or threatening class actions with theoretical aggregate damages in the millions if not billions of dollars.

Recognizing and reducing risk has never been more important. Yet many businesses continue to rely on consumer contracts that have been cobbled together over many years by many people, often with little regard to their readability, let alone their enforceability.

Education :

• Villanova University School of Law, J.D., 2000,
• Bucknell University, B.A., 1997,

Bar Admissions : New Jersey, Pennsylvania

Court Admissions :

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Eleventh Circuit
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania