Michael S. Appel

Michael has achieved excellent results for his clients in catastrophic personal injury matters. He is widely recognized as one of the nation’s top mass-tort lawyers, based on his work pursuing cases against the drug and medical-device industry. Michael has played a leading role in the following national litigation matters:

• He has served as co-lead coordinating counsel for the plaintiffs in national litigation against Fresenius, the manufacturer of GranuFlo, a defective product used during dialysis.
• He has served on the plaintiffs’ executive committee in litigation involving transvaginal surgical mesh implants.
• He was plaintiffs’ lead coordinating counsel in Massachusetts diet-drug litigation, in which he helped to obtain settlements for over 2,300 individuals injured by the Fen-Phen and Redux diet drugs.
• He was plaintiffs’ co-liaison counsel in litigation involving Taxus surgical stents, which were favorably settled.

Michael has had similar success handling matters involving medical malpractice, premises liability, workplace injury, and motor-vehicle accidents. He has successfully negotiated favorable resolutions of such cases, including a $4 million settlement on behalf of a child who sustained a traumatic brain injury in a bus accident, a $6 million settlement for law-enforcement officers in a nationwide class-action suit against the maker of material used in body armor, and a $4.5 million settlement on behalf of the parents of a college student who was murdered in her off-campus apartment.

Michael lectures frequently on issues of trial practice and mass torts at various legal-education and bar-association seminars.

Recognition:

• American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
• The Best Lawyers in America (Personal Injury Litigation and Mass Tort/Class Actions), 2012-2022
• The Best Lawyers in America “Lawyer of the Year,” Mass Tort Litigation/Class Action-Plaintiffs, 2017
• Massachusetts Super Lawyers (Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical Malpractice), 2007-2021
• Rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell
• Benchmark Litigation Litigation Star (Plaintiff), Massachusetts, 2013-2021
• Benchmark Appellate First Circuit Litigation Star, Massachusetts, 2013

Memberships:

• Boston Bar Association (former Chair, Tort Committee)
• American Association for Justice (formerly known as Association of Trial Lawyers of America)
• Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys

Admissions:

• Massachusetts
• U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
• U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit