Michael Rayfield

Michael E. Rayfield is an associate in Mayer Brown’s Supreme Court & Appellate practice. He has worked primarily on product liability, privacy, and securities cases, and has authored dozens of appellate briefs filed in the US Supreme Court, the Second, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, and various state appellate courts.

Mike has argued cases in the Second and Ninth Circuits, and has had extensive involvement in fifteen jury trials in various aspects of appellate preservation, including drafting and arguing motions in limine, directed-verdict motions, and proposed jury instructions.

In addition to representing corporate clients, Mike has an active practice in criminal and immigration law. Mike currently represents two clients previously convicted of murder-for-hire, and recently argued and won an appeal in the Second Circuit reversing the conviction of one of those clients.

Mike has successfully represented a Mexican immigrant seeking relief from deportation in the Seventh Circuit, and is now handling an appeal in the Second Circuit on behalf of an immigrant facing deportation to the Dominican Republic.

Prior to joining Mayer Brown in 2013, Mike worked as a law clerk to Judge Jay S. Bybee of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and to Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York. He also spent a year as a litigation associate at another prominent international law firm based in New York.

Mike received his JD with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a comments editor on the Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University. Mike is listed as a “top rated appellate attorney” by the publication Super Lawyers.

Education :

• The University of Chicago Law School, JD, with high honors
• Cornell University, BA

Admissions :

• New York
• Florida
• US District Court for the Northern District of New York
• US District Court for the Southern District of New York
• US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit