Education

Law School/Year: Stanford University, 1990

College/Year: Princeton University, 1987

Bar Admissions

California; various district courts; D.C., 5th, 6th and 9th Circuits

Practice Areas

Business Litigation, Criminal Law

Major Cases

Michael Attanasio was lead trial counsel for a former Arthur Andersen partner charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with securities, wire and bank fraud in connection with the financial reporting of Peregrine Systems Inc. After a three-month trial in 2007, a mistrial was declared after the jury deadlocked on all charges. The case was retried and in March 2008 another mistrial was declared. The government then dismissed all charges against Attanasio’s client.

Attanasio was lead trial counsel for the largest roofing company in Southern California and one of its co-owners in a major workers’ compensation fraud investigation by the District Attorney’s Office. The case was resolved with the payment of restitution by the owners and no incarceration for any of the 11 defendants.

He has successfully represented clients in sensitive law enforcement investigations, including the pending investigation by former Sen. George Mitchell into the alleged use of performance enhancing substances in Major League Baseball.

Professional Background

After graduating from law school, Attanasio was a law clerk to the Hon. Rudi M. Brewster from 1990-‘91. He then joined the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., after being hired though the Attorney General’s Honors Program. Attanasio was assigned to the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, a special unit that prosecutes sensitive white-collar cases in districts around the country. He tried cases to federal juries in the Southern District of New York, the Western District of Kentucky, the Northern District of Ohio, the Southern District of Texas and the District of Columbia.

In 2004 Attanasio joined Cooley Godward Kronish, where he practices white-collar criminal defense and complex business litigation.

Professional Affiliations

Adjunct professor, University of San Diego Law School, White Collar and Corporate Crime; master, Welsh Inn of Court; board member, San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program; lawyers representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference (2004-06); selected by “The Best Lawyers in America,” White Collar Criminal Defense; selected by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the “Top 20 Lawyers under 40” (2004); member: ABA, Federal Bar Association, Association of Business Trial Lawyers

Personal Affiliations

Husband of Susan Lennon and proud father of boys Nick, 6, and Max, 4.