Michael A. Levy

MIKE LEVY represents individuals and corporations in major criminal cases and investigations. He argued and secured a unanimous 9-0 victory in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of “Bridgegate” defendant Bill Baroni in Kelly v. United States, obtaining reversal of Baroni’s criminal conviction and dismissal of all charges. Mike is also one of the lawyers defending a major multinational telecommunications equipment company against charges of racketeering, trade secret theft, bank fraud, and other alleged offenses in a pending federal criminal case in the Eastern District of New York. 

In addition to white collar criminal defense at the trial and appellate level, Mike’s practice also focuses on complex commercial litigation, commercial arbitration, securities enforcement matters, and internal corporate investigations. On the commercial litigation front, Mike has recently tried multiple high-stakes commercial arbitrations through multi-week evidentiary hearings involving hundreds of millions of dollars in claims, while also leading complex Delaware litigation involving nine-figure disputes between business partners. On the enforcement and regulatory side, Mike regularly represents corporations, senior executives, and financial services professionals in high-profile federal investigations conducted by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other government and regulatory agencies.

Before joining Sidley in 2016, Mike spent 13 years as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, including three years as that office’s Chief of Appeals, supervising all criminal appellate litigation and counseling office leadership on complex legal issues. Prior to becoming Chief of Appeals, Mike spent a decade prosecuting cases in a variety of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s white collar units, including the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, the Complex Frauds unit, and the Public Corruption unit.

Across his time in government and private practice, Mike has personally briefed and/or argued more than 100 appeals in numerous federal circuits and the United States Supreme Court, and has conducted more than a dozen federal trials. 

Mike is ranked by Chambers USA among the leading lawyers for New York Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations (2021–2025). Chambers quotes one client as stating that Mike is “a very smart, hard-working and dedicated professional with excellent judgment” (2024). Mike is recommended for Dispute Resolution: Appellate and Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense in Legal 500 United States 2017. He is also a member of the UJA Federation of New York’s Lawyers Executive Committee and a former chair of that organization’s White Collar & Securities Enforcement Group.

Individual Representations

• Representing a senior executive at a large financial services company in connection with a DOJ investigation into business-card sales practices. 
• Representing a private wealth adviser in a multinational bank in connection with one of the world’s largest financial scandals. 
• Arguing successfully in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of “Bridgegate” defendant Bill Baroni, former Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, obtaining a unanimous 9-0 decision that overturned Baroni’s criminal conviction and ordered the charges against him dismissed.
• Representing a founder and former executive of an American private equity firm in the college admissions scandal, “Varsity Blues.”
• Representing a defendant charged with four felonies in the Iraqi Oil-for-Food prosecution brought by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, resolving the case with a plea of guilty to a misdemeanor and a sentence consisting of a US$10 special assessment.
• Representing a local business owner in connection with the grand jury investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York into fundraising by and on behalf of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Corporate Representations

• Conducting an investigation into the circumstances and failures that allowed a former physician to sexually exploit patients at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center. The matter has received widespread press coverage. 
• Represented a U.S. public company in the waste management industry in a coordinated resolution with the DOJ and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with bribery allegations, including alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.
• Representing a fintech lender service provider in connection with various government investigations concerning the Company’s fraud-prevention practices during the Paycheck Protection Program, including investigations by the Department of Justice, the House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.
• Representing a major multinational telecommunications equipment company against charges of racketeering, trade secret theft, bank fraud, and other alleged offenses in a pending federal criminal case in the Eastern District of New York.
• Representing two corporate executives in connection with interviews by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office relating to that office’s Russia investigation.         
• Representing a broker-dealer and several employees in connection with parallel DOJ and SEC investigations into corruption at a public pension fund.
• Conducting an internal investigation on behalf of a large public company in connection with parallel DOJ and SEC investigations into potential foreign corruption and accounting fraud at one of the company’s Asian subsidiaries.   
• Representing soccer confederation CONCACAF in connection with obtaining restitution for CONCACAF and other victims in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York’s criminal prosecution of corruption in world football.  
• Served as a senior member of the legal team counseling the U.S. and U.K.-appointed monitor for a major multinational bank on issues of money laundering and subpoena compliance.
• Representing a small business in connection with a grand jury investigation conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York into official corruption by an aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.