Michael J. Cohen

Bar / Professional Activity

• Thomas E. Fairchild Inn of Court, Master
• Wisconsin Defense Counsel
• Defense Research Institute
• High School Mock Trial Tournament, Former Co-Chair
• Wisconsin Fellows
• American Bar Foundation
• American Bar Association, Tort Law and Insurance, Business Litigation
• Thomas E. Fairchild Inn of Court, Master
• Milwaukee Bar Foundation, Former Board Member
• Milwaukee Bar Association, Past President; Bench-Bar Civil Division Committee, Former Co-Chair; Civil Litigation Section, Former Chair
• State Bar of Wisconsin, Past Member of the Board of Governors, 2013 – 2017
• State Bar of Wisconsin, Former Judicial Election Steering Committee
• United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
• United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
• Wisconsin

Videos

• Attorney Michael Cohen, a shareholder with the Milwaukee, Wisconsin law firm of Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols S.C. shares insights on the boundaries of permissible conduct of employees as they prepare to leave their current employer to work for a competitor or start a new competing venture. In this video, Mike focuses on how Wisconsin law views certain preparatory steps taken by an employee, while still employed, to prepare to compete after employment and whether they are deemed to have breached their duty of loyalty the employer., Preparing to Compete: The Boundaries of Permissible Conduct, 2017
• Attorney Mike Cohen of Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols, a Milwaukee based law firm discusses the "Enforceability of Non-Compete Agreements in Wisconsin." Mike reviews Wisconsin's current non-compete statute and the 5 key factors in determining enforceability of non-compete agreements., Enforceability of Non-Compete Agreements in Wisconsin, 2015

Pro bono / Community Service

• The Joseph Gomoll Foundation (Joey’s Song), Board Member
• City of Milwaukee Housing Authority, Alternate Hearing Examiner, 1986-1989
• City of Milwaukee Administrative Appellate Review Board, Board Member, 1987-1989
• Business Law, Center for Legal Technology, a division of MBTI/Business Training Institute, Instructor, 1989-1991
• National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Former Board Member
• International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, Former Chairman of the Board and Board Member

Honors

• 2010 - Present, The Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers, 2021
• Top 10 Influential Commercial Litigation Lawyers to Watch in Wisconsin by Business Today, 2023
• Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Litigation: General Commercial, 2024
• Every year, the Milwaukee Bar Association recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of members within the legal community at the MBA Annual Meeting. Out of the thousands of lawyers in our community, Attorney Michael J. Cohen was selected as this year’s 2022 Distinguished Service Award recipient. The MBA presents the award to a member of the bar whose extraordinary service over the years has helped to support and better the legal profession., Distinguished Service Award, Milwaukee Bar Association, 2022
• 2006 - Present, Wisconsin Super Lawyers, Super Lawyers, 2021
• 2008 - Present, Top 50 Wisconsin Super Lawyers, Super Lawyers, 2021
• 2011 - Present, Top 25 Lawyers in Milwaukee, Super Lawyers, 2020
• Milwaukee Lawyer of the Year® (Insurance Law, 2014, 2017 & 2019; Litigation-Insurance – 2020; Litigation – Environmental – 2023; Litigation – Insurance – 2024)
• Zilber Scholar
• America's Top 100 Attorneys - Lifetime Achievement Member, America's Top 100 Attorneys - Lifetime Achievement Member, 2017
• Recognized as a Leader in the Law, Leaders in the Law, 2011
• Thomas More Scholar

Educational Background

• University of Wisconsin, B.A., 1983

White Papers

• This article discusses the recent case of Steadfast Ins. Co. v. Greenwich Ins. Co. , which further clarified Wisconsin’s legal landscape regarding an insurer’s duty to defend in the context of multiple insurers defending the same mutual insured, A Perilous Decision: Steadfast Explains an Insurer's Duty to Defend in the Multi-Insurer Context (and the Damages Available Against a Breaching Insurer), 2019
• Under our free enterprise system, employees frequently leave their employment to work for a competitor or start a new competing venture. Questions often arise about whether an employee may be deemed to have breached their duty of loyalty owed to his or her employer by taking certain preparatory steps, while still employed, to compete with his or her employer after termination. A related issue has to do with whether an employee or a former employee may be deemed to have breached a non-compete agreement by taking such preparatory measures. I have addressed the issue of the validity of non-compete agreements more generally in my video entitled, Enforceability of Non-Compete Agreements in Wisconsin. This article will focus more on how the law views certain steps taken by an employee while still employed to prepare to compete after employment., Preparing to Compete: The Boundaries of Permissible Conduct, 2018
• One area of business litigation that we often address is the issue of enforceability of non-compete agreements in Wisconsin. A non-compete agreement is a written agreement between an employer and employee that prohibits the employee, after termination of employment, from specific activities within a specific time period and a specific geographic area. Wisconsin has a statute, Section 103.465, that addresses non-compete agreements and provides that if the non-compete agreement is reasonably necessary to protect the employer and is reasonable in geographic scope and reasonable in time limitation, it will be enforceable. This is an area where there is quite a bit of case law and if the non-compete is carefully drafted in accordance with the most recent case law in the area, courts will enforce them., 5 Key Factors in Determining Enforceability of Non-Compete Agreements in Wisconsin, 2016

Scholarly Lectures / Writings

• Speaker, Advanced Allocation Issues, Complex Insurance Claims Litigation Association, March 10, 2010
• Speaker, Insurance Coverage for Environmental Contamination: Welcome Back to Environmental Law After Johnson Controls, Inc., v. Employers Insurance of Wausua, et al., Civil Trial Counsel of Wisconsin, August 11, 2005
• Speaker, Insurance Bad Faith Claims in Wisconsin, Lorman Business Center, Inc., March 31, 2006; April 29, 2005 and March 22, 2005
• Speaker, Annual Convention Litigation Section—Insurance Coverage for Business Torts, State Bar of Wisconsin, May 3, 2006
• Speaker, Insurance Coverage for Environmental Contamination, Civil Trial Counsel of Wisconsin, August 12, 2006
• Speaker, 2006 Civil Law Seminar—Case Management Orders, Wisconsin Supreme Court, December 6, 2006
• Speaker, Insurance Bad Faith Claims, Lorman Business Center, Inc., March 30, 2007
• Speaker, Current Issues Surrounding CGL Coverage—Insurance Coverage for Business Torts, Lorman Business Center, Inc., May 4, 2007
• Speaker, Real Evidence for the Trial Practitioner—Scope of Expert Testimony at Trial—Attempts to Go Beyond Expert Report and Disclosures; Use of Information Obtained Over the Internet; Litigation Holds—What Should be done; Contacting Employees and Former Employees of Opposing Party, Lorman Business Center, Inc., August 28, 2007
• Speaker, 31st Annual Corporate Practice Institute—Trade Secrets: A Thief or Not a Thief?, State Bar of Wisconsin—CLE Seminars, December 4, 2007
• Speaker, 2008 Insurance Law Institute—Views From Across the River—Trigger, Allocation and the Plastics Engineering Co. v. Liberty Mutual Co. Case in Wisconsin, Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association, November 13, 2008
• Speaker, Practical Evidence Issues Before and at Trial—Scope of Expert Testimony at Trial—Attempts to Go Beyond Expert Report and Disclosures; Use of Information Obtained Over the Internet; Litigation Holds—What Should be Done; Contacting Employees and Former Employees of Opposing Party; Milwaukee Bar Association, December 12, 2008
• Author, Can Employers Force Employees to Sign Noncompete Agreements as a Condition of their Employment?, Wisconsin Lawyer, Vol. 72, No. 5, (May 1999) (co-authored with William T. Stuart)
• Author, Recent Revisions to the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act Raise the Stakes for Employers, The Business Journal (Milwaukee), Vol. 27, No. 3 at 43 (Oct. 16, 2009) (co-authored with Thomas M. Hruz)
• Speaker, Litigation Holds and the Duty to Preserve Evidence, Marquette University Law School, November 6, 2009
• Speaker, What Mediators Want You to Know, The Civil Committee of the Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association (November 2024)
• Speaker, Litigation Holds—What Should Be Done. Wisconsin Defense Counsel 2010 Summer Conference; Washington County Bar Association, February 17, 2010
• Speaker, Trending Topics in Business Litigation—Preparing to Compete and the Breach of the Duty of Loyalty, Wisconsin State Bar, November 30, 2012
• Speaker, Agents who Prepare to Compete: Soliciting Customers and Co-Workers, State Bar of Wisconsin, December 5, 2013
• Speaker, E-Discovery in Insurance Coverage Cases, PCI Claims Committee Conference, October 8, 2014
• Speaker, Social Media and Other Electronic Evidence, 2016 Marquette University Law School Civil Litigation and Evidence Conference (March 2016)
• Speaker, Arbitration: Soup to Nuts, Alternative Dispute Resolution Seminar, Milwaukee Bar Association (May 2016)
• Speaker, Expert Witnesses: Using Wisconsin Court Rules to Your Advantage, National Business Institute (September 2017)
• Chair and Speaker, Trending Topics in Business Litigation 2018, State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE (November 2018)
• Chair and Speaker, Trending Topics in Business Litigation 2019, State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE (December 2019)
• Chair and Speaker, Trending Topics in Business Litigation 2020, State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE (December 2020)
• Chair and Speaker, Trending Topics in Business Litigation 2021, State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE (December 2021)
• Chair and Speaker, Trending Topics in Business Litigation 2022, State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE, (December, 2022)
• Speaker, Using Proactive ADR Strategies to Efficiently and Successfully Navigate Business Disputes, Milwaukee Bar Association (October, 2023)
• Chair and Speaker, Trending Topics in Business Litigation 2023, State Bar of Wisconsin (November 2023)

Other Outstanding Achievements

• America's Top 100 Attorneys - Lifetime Achievement Member (2017)
• Member of Board of Directors and Executive Committee, Meissner, Tierney, Fisher & Nichols, S.C.;

• Business
• Insurance

“Michael provides thoughtful and pragmatic advice to clients from inception to exit.”

“Skilled at controlling the narrative. Hard working. Earnest.”

“Insurance coverage lawyer supreme”

“Mike is a highly skilled litigator and a formidable adversary”

“Best insurance coverage attorney in the state.”

“Great civil litigator and mediator”

“Mike is one of the best insurance coverage lawyers in the area.”