Michael Tuteur

Michael J. Tuteur is a litigation partner with Foley & Lardner LLP. From 2009-2015, Michael served as the national department chair for Litigation, as well as chair of the firm’s Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice.

Michael is a member of the firm’s national management committee and focuses his practice on health care litigation and government enforcement defense. Michael represents clients in a broad range of industries, including healthcare, higher education, software, biotechnology, insurance, education, advertising, banking and mutual funds.

His litigation experience is similarly diverse, and includes ERISA and RICO class actions, securities and syndicated debt disputes, licensing and copyright actions, contract and shareholder suits, and defense of civil false claims actions. Michael also represents organizations and corporate officers and directors in connection with criminal and regulatory investigations involving alleged health care fraud, scientific misconduct, securities fraud, mutual fund regulatory violations and banking infractions.

He is a member of the Government Enforcement Defense & Investigations; Securities, Enforcement & Litigation; and Privacy, Security & Information Management Practices. Michael is also a member of the Health Care Industry Team.

Among the numerous cases he has successfully handled, Michael has:

• Won a $200,000,000 judgment after six years of litigation in a complex federal action arising out of an alleged reinsurance contract
• Won summary judgment, and a subsequent appeal, in a $100,000,000 federal False Claims Act case which alleged fraudulent billing to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• Won a defense verdict after two weeks of trial, and sustained the verdict on appeal, in an $80,000,000 post-closing adjustment case which alleged breach of contract and violation of the Massachusetts UDPA regarding the post-closing allocation of tax receivables
• Obtained dismissals and denials of class certification in a national RICO and ERISA class action brought by chiropractors and other medical providers against a large number of health insurance plans
• Litigated and prevailed in an action by a Canadian surgical supply company against a Fortune 50 pharmaceutical firm for breach of an exclusive licensing agreement and bad faith termination
• Won summary judgment for a global advertising company after persuading the court that Ukrainian law governed the action and precluded recovery on the plaintiff’s claims
• Favorably settled claims of grant fraud brought by the Department of Justice and the National Institutes of Health against a Boston area university and medical school
• Prevailed in the U.S. Court of Appeals on a claim of ownership of license rights for a patented bio-insecticide
• Defended various broker/dealers, health care executives, bank directors and a defense department contractor in investigations launched by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Education :

Michael’s J.D. was conferred magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (1984). He also holds an A.B. from Harvard College (summa cum laude, 1980), where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa.

Admissions :

Michael is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, D.C. and Federal Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Affiliations :

Michael is a trial adviser in Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and has taught at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Continuing Education Program on Corporate Compliance.

Michael was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General to represent the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency in litigation involving casino gambling in the Commonwealth.

Earlier in his career, Michael was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General to represent Massachusetts Governors William F. Weld and A. Paul Cellucci in four constitutional cases involving the scope and effect of the governor’s veto power.

Michael was also named special master by a United States District Court to investigate allegations of document destruction and attorney misconduct. In addition, Michael was appointed an expert witness to the Royal Court of Justice in London, England, to give opinion evidence on the application of U.S. law to the Latin American syndicated debt market.

Before returning to private practice, Michael served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, practicing in the Major Crimes Unit and Organized Crime Strike Force.

Michael serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a component of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.