Mike Kelly: The Million Dollar Man

The cover of this year’s Northern California’s SuperLawyers Magazine features Walkup partner Mike Kelly, dubbing him “The Million Dollar Man.” The subcaption quips: “Michael Kelly is a very funny man. But facing him in court is no laughing matter.”

As the cover article elucidates, Mike is known as much for his accessible style and community involvement, as for his professional achievements. “Juries can relate to him—he's not stuffy—just a regular guy. But he can take a complicated subject and make it easy and understandable,” says Linda Ross, past president of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association.

Despite the “regular guy” label, it’s no accident that Mike has “tried, arbitrated or mediated more than 100 cases in which his client's recovery exceeded $1 million, including the largest personal injury verdict in Sonoma County history.”

Defense attorney Pat Galloway has tried a number of cases against Mike. He confides that Mike Kelly’s cross-examinations, even when taking on sophisticated medical experts, are “devastating.”

When Mike isn’t devastating expert witnesses with his cross examination technique, he is often teaching other lawyers. For “nearly 30 years, he has taught for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy,” the leading organization in teaching skilled and ethical advocacy.

He also teaches trial skills internationally - in Great Britain, the Republic of Georgia, and Japan, where rapidly evolving legal systems demand crash courses in cutting edge trial skills.

As Ken Gack, a San Francisco mediator puts it, Mike “doesn’t make a lot of money for teaching, but he’s a great believer in the obligations of lawyers.”