Mike Lyons

Mike is Of Counsel in Gibson Dunn's Dallas office. He practices in the firm's Litigation Department and focuses on complex commercial disputes, FINRA arbitration and broker-dealer litigation, and environmental and mass tort litigation. With fifteen years of experience, Mike has substantial trial and arbitration experience in matters across a broad range of disciplines and industries, with particular expertise in the financial services industry.

Financial services litigation is the core of Mike's practice. He represents broker-dealers, banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions in customer and industry disputes and putative class actions in federal and state courts and in arbitration. That work regularly includes FINRA arbitrations involving customer disputes, expungement proceedings, and U5 defamation claims.

Mike also represents companies in complex environmental, mass tort, and consumer protection litigation, including Clean Air Act citizen suits, putative class and mass actions arising from industrial operations, and state attorney general enforcement actions under state consumer protection statutes. He represents clients in high-stakes partnership and corporate control disputes before the newly created Texas Business Court.

In addition to his litigation expertise, Mike has extensive experience representing clients in regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, including by the DOJ, SEC, and FINRA.

Representative Matters

• Defended a broker-dealer client in a FINRA arbitration between industry participants involving a demand of approximately $65 million. The panel awarded less than five percent of the amount sought.
• Lead counsel to a national brokerage firm across a nationwide portfolio of concurrent FINRA arbitrations, directing the defense of each matter from intake and early exposure assessment through hearing and advising on settlement posture across the portfolio. Also handles the related court proceedings, including motions to compel arbitration in federal and state probate courts.
• Defends a biomass energy producer in parallel putative class and mass actions arising from the operation of a wood-pellet manufacturing facility.
• Represents a global manufacturer in an action brought by the Texas Attorney General alleging violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act related to the marketing of PFAS-containing consumer products.
• Represents family partnership stakeholders in a control and succession dispute in the Texas Business Court involving multiple operating partnerships and trusts.
• Defends a national credit union in a putative class action, drawing on his in-house experience in the banking sector to shape dispositive briefing.

Before joining Gibson Dunn, Mike served as the Head of Litigation for a diversified financial services company and as the General Counsel of an international technology company. That in-house experience shapes how he approaches engagements. Having managed outside counsel, built and administered litigation budgets, and reported to executive leadership and boards on litigation risk, he understands the cost and business pressures behind a client's litigation decisions, and he runs matters accordingly — with candid early assessments, disciplined budgeting, and reporting a client can take directly to its own leadership. He also previously served as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice.

Mike received his law degree magna cum laude from the SMU Dedman School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and served as Lead Articles Editor on the SMU Law Review. Mike received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin. He worked in the technology industry before beginning his legal career.

Mike is admitted to practice law in the State of Texas.