Advocate Michael Albert Kelly

Mike Kelly is one of the nation’s top personal injury attorneys. For four decades he has protected consumers from corporate greed, medical mistakes, dangerous household products, unsafe medical devices and motor vehicle accidents of every kind. He has tried, arbitrated or settled hundreds of cases where the recovery by his client exceeded $1 million. In 2020 he helped negotiate the multibillion dollar resolution of the 2017 California wildfire lawsuits brought against utility giant PG&E. Prior to that his $8.341 million verdict in the first DePuy ASR/Johnson & Johnson metal-on-metal artificial hip trial helped produce a $2.5 billion national settlement for all victims.
Kelly is consistently listed among the top tier of lawyers in the country. In 2020 he was the top vote-getter in the Northern California Super Lawyers polling. A member of the prestigious Inner Circle of Advocates, he has been selected by Super Lawyers as a “Top Ten” honoree annually since 2017 and selected by “Best Lawyers” for 18 consecutive years.
When resolution by mediation or settlement fails, Kelly is ready to take his clients’ cases before juries. Recent trials have produced a $4 million jury verdict against the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District for the death of a pedestrian struck by one of its buses, a $5.6 million jury verdict against a Super Shuttle driver for the death of a retired restauranteur, a $12.75 million recovery against a domestic auto maker, (auto roll over), a $10.5 million settlement for the wrongful death of a single mother, and a major eight-figure confidential settlement against Kaiser Health Plan for a catastrophically injured infant. His $8.35 million verdict on behalf of a construction worker who lost an arm showed his skill in work-site injury cases. His $23.2 million jury verdict in a birth injury medical malpractice case in Minnesota ranks among that state’s largest verdicts for obstetrical injury.
Beyond stellar results for his clients, Kelly is proud of his many contributions to the legal community. He is a regular speaker for 360 Advocacy, and chairs its annual Trucking Litigation program. He teaches regularly for NITA, The Rutter Group, ABOTA, the Consumer Attorneys of California, AAJ, SFTLA and the Bar Association of San Francisco. He served for 10 years as the Director of Teacher Training programs for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and remains a member of its Board of Governors. He has long been active in protecting the rights of the underrepresented, working for pedestrian and bicyclist safety, lobbying for compensation fairness for medical malpractice victims and protecting the rights of the LGBT community.
In 2014, he was selected as the “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by the California Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. In 2012 he was honored by the Consumer Attorneys of California with the Robert E. Cartwright Award, for his work teaching Trial Advocacy. In 2011 he was honored by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy with the Robert Oliphant Award, recognizing his pro bono contributions to advocacy teaching. He has been selected as the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association’s “Trial Lawyer of the Year,” an award for which he has been nominated in three different decades.
He holds an “AV” rating (highest rating) from Martindale-Hubbell and holds membership in the country’s most selective legal honorary societies including the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers (for whom he served as President in 2012-2013), the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, The Summit Council and The Irish Legal 100.
He graduated summa cum laude from St. Mary’s College of California in 1973. He obtained his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1976. He was an Assistant Professor of Law at Hastings from 1981 – 2001.