Michael V. Mancini

Michael V. Mancini

Founding Partner Michael V. Mancini focuses on shareholder and derivative, cannabis, business, and entertainment disputes. He has represented internationally recognized businesses, notable angel investors, startups, world-famous celebrities, small local businesses, and private individuals.

Michael is a leader in cannabis litigation who handles headline-making cannabis disputes. He regularly spearheads complex cannabis litigation and frequently serves as advisory co-counsel to other premier firms. He has spoken on multiple expert panels regarding the ethics of representing licensed cannabis companies, emerging trends in cannabis litigation, and the need to thoroughly comprehend state and local licensing before rushing into court. Michael has recovered tens of millions of dollars for cannabis clients and defeated millions of dollars in claims against them.

Michael also has substantial experience in high-stakes business, breach of contract, entertainment, and unfair competition cases. Michael has negotiated advantageous settlements, secured case-ending pretrial rulings, excluded damaging evidence and expert testimony, fended off abusive evidentiary motions, taken and defended key depositions, and handled private arbitration proceedings and civil jury and bench trials in State and Federal courts.

Representative Matters

• Achieved complete dismissal of nine-figure breach of fiduciary duty litigation in Los Angeles Superior Court
• Secured dismissal of fraud litigation against multiple out-of-state defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction
• Defeated emergency application for a temporary restraining order against a notable cannabis business.
• Beneficial settlement for plaintiffs in national-headline cannabis litigation.
• Won race to recover approximately $900,000 from a business owner who commingled company investments with his overseas trust accounts.
• On less than a 24-hour turnaround, defeated surprise application for temporary restraining order brought against famous cannabis business.
• Resolved dispute between internationally-celebrated musician and producer of a large, overseas holiday event.
• (Pro Bono) Filed amicus brief (available here) in the Ninth Circuit, on behalf of 27 leading immigration law scholars and practitioners, opposing the government’s attempt to lift a nationwide injunction preventing termination of Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 refugees from four countries: Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador.
• (Pro Bono) On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, submitted an amicus brief to the California Court of Appeals arguing that family courts violate the United States Constitution when they condition custody upon English language proficiency. The brief (available here) contributed to the establishment of new California law: “English fluency [is] an improper factor in considering a child’s best interest in the absence of facts showing actual harm due to language.” S.Y. v. Superior Court of San Diego County, 29 Cal.App.5th 324, 338–339 (2018).
• Achieved dismissal of all claims against a celebrity athlete because the United States District Court for the Central District of California lacked personal and subject matter jurisdiction.
• Second-chaired a $2,280,000 jury verdict against a global insurance company in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
• Achieved summary judgment for a celebrity defendant in a multi-million-dollar real estate dispute in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Pro Bono Service

Since founding Mancini Shenk LLP, Michael has dedicated over 225 hours to socially conscious pro bono advocacy. For a sampling of Michael’s pro bono work, see this amicus brief advocating for the rights of parents who do not speak English and this Ninth Circuit amicus brief advocating against the Trump administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Speaking Engagements

• Los Angeles County Bar Association Cannabis Section: 2nd Cannabis Litigation Salon: Updates and Insights from Industry Leaders (2021)
• Expert Webcast: Key Sources of Litigation and Managing Risks in Cannabis (2021)
• Expert Webcast: Cannabis Social Equity Roundtable (2021)
• Los Angeles County Bar Association Cannabis Section: Getting In The Weeds With Cannabis Litigation: Claims, Strategies, Challenges, and Finding Resolution (2020)
• National Business Institute: Recreational Cannabis Business Law in California (2019)
• California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo: From the Classroom to the Courtroom (2019)

Professional Affiliations and Awards

Michael is a member of the American Bar Association and the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and a member of the board of directors of Los Angeles Italian American Lawyers Association. He is also a proud graduate of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Traditional Trial Advocacy Project (known as the “TAP” program).

Michael has received numerous honors and awards, including:

• Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent® (2021-2025)
• Los Angeles Daily Journal Leading Commercial Litigator Award (2025)
• Los Angeles Times Legal Visionary Award (2024)
• Los Angeles Business Journal Leaders of Influence: Litigators and Trial Attorneys Award (2024)
• Super Lawyers Magazine “Super Lawyer” (Southern California, 2021-2024)
• Super Lawyers Magazine “Southern California Rising Star” (2016-2020)
• Los Angeles Magazine Top Attorney (Southern California, 2021-2024)
• America’s Top 100 Civil Defense Litigators (Southern California, 2020-2024)

Education

Michael attended California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with cum laude distinction in 2004. Michael earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2008. During law school, Michael was a member of the celebrated Georgetown Criminal Justice Clinic, where he successfully represented criminal defendants in parole hearings and before the D.C. Superior Court.

Bar Admissions

Michael is a member in good standing of the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of California and all of California’s lower state courts, all of the United States District Courts in California, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.