Concentration: Michael Lurie has more than eighteen years of experience in complex litigation matters. Prior to joining MacDonald Rothweiler Eisenberg LLP, Michael was a senior attorney in the Mass Tort and Complex Litigation Group at the firm of Robinson & Cole LLP in Boston. He also served as senior staff counsel to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in the Commonwealth and the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere. In that capacity, he worked closely with the justices on both civil and criminal matters.
Mr. Lurie's current practice focuses on representing plaintiffs in complex products liability and mass tort cases, with a particular focus upon defective pharmaceuticals and medical devices. In early 2006, he was a senior member of the trial team that successfully represented, in a case followed by the national press, the estate of the first wrongful death victim of the Multiple Sclerosis drug Tsabyri® and fought vigorously against the drug's return to the American marketplace before the FDA in March of 2006. Mr. Lurie currently represents, in courts in Georgia, Utah and New Jersey, several families seeking compensation for deaths associated with the transdermal opioid pain medication the Duragesic™ patch. He also is a senior member of the trial team representing the estate of noted Harvard University paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould in connection with medical malpractice claims arising from Dr. Gould's death in 2002.
Mr. Lurie has handled complex matters at trial both in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Superior Court, including the representation of municipal and state governmental entities in cases challenging reapportionment plans under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and in civil rights litigation raising constitutional claims. He has also been primarily responsible for appellate matters before the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and the Massachusetts Appeals Court.
Before joining Robinson & Cole, Mr. Lurie was an associate appellate counsel at the New York Legal Aid Society, Criminal Appeals Bureau, where his practice focused on representing indigent criminal defendants in appellate litigation. Following law school, Mr. Lurie served as a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court.
Education: He received a B.F.A. from Tufts University in 1981 and his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1987.
Memberships: Mr. Lurie is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and New York and is a member of the American and Massachusetts Bar Associations.
