Michael Goolsby

Michael Goolsby, a founding member of Lanza & Goolsby, PLC, has over 15 years of experience handling sophisticated and complex commercial litigation in courts throughout the country, and in providing general counsel services to start-up technology companies.

Mr. Goolsby's principal practice involves complex insurance coverage matters in the areas of corporate director and officer liability and similar lines of professional liability insurance. Having served for 6 years as in-house counsel for one of the top international directors and officers liability insurance carriers, Chubb, Mr. Goolsby is considered an expert in the field. He has defended, orchestrated and negotiated global resolutions of hundreds of suits against corporate directors and officers, including class-action securities fraud litigation, corporate shareholder and derivative litigation (including takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, and breach of fiduciary duty), class-action consumer fraud litigation, governmental actions and investigations, financial services litigation, and insolvency litigation, including corporate bankruptcy.

More recently Mr. Goolsby has been retained by U.S. Bankruptcy Trustees and Creditor's Committees to sue wrongdoing corporations and their directors and officers for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and fraud in corporate bankruptcy situations, with the ultimate goal of leveraging Mr. Goolsby's D&O insurance industry knowledge and experience. In this regard, Mr. Goolsby most recently obtained a $10 million judgment against a public company and its directors and officers, and he prosecutes multiple multi-million dollar claims against D&O insurance companies.

Michael also has a significant general counsel practice, concentrating on helping companies get started, raise capital, and structure and grow their businesses. Having co-founded and served as a CEO and general counsel for two technology companies, Mr. Goolsby understands both the business and legal needs of start-up to mid-sized companies. His unique ability to take off his lawyer hat and think like an entrepreneur allows him to understand and envision his client's business plan and provide business-productive legal solutions. His corporate practice includes entity formation; equity and debt financing transactions; founders agreements; executive employment and consulting agreements; negotiation and drafting of strategic alliances, partnerships, and mergers/acquisitions; oversight of outside counsel; general operations and marketing support; employment issues; and general contracts work.

Mr. Goolsby also maintains a general civil litigation practice. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of commercial, consumer and personal disputes, including complex franchisee litigation, class-action consumer litigation, employment litigation and general civil litigation.

Michael received his Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Irvine. He is a member of the State Bar of California, and is admitted to all State and Federal courts in California.