Michael J. Lentz

PROFILE

Mike was probably destined to be a lawyer. While other kids were learning to read Dr. Seuss, Mike’s father, a long-time personal injury lawyer, taught him using deposition transcripts. “I don’t recommend this to parents,” he says of serving jurisprudence with the juice and cookies, but it worked for him. All that early exposure gave Mike a passion for the law.

Mike brings that zeal and passion as to his practice today. His peers praise his excellence at “big picture” analysis and problem-solving. He’s also skilled at carefully managing the day-to-day minutiae of complex litigation.

“It’s unusual for a firm our size to handle the caliber and variety of our case load. It works because there is no hierarchy here—no partners, no associates, no pecking order. Here we are just lawyers; that helps us get the job done right.”

After five years with large Baltimore firms, and three as a solo and small-firm practitioner, Michael joined Wagonheim Law in 2006. He brought his practice to WL because he wanted the opportunity to litigate challenging matters for excellent clients, while enjoying the personal and family life benefits that come from working in a smaller law firm.

Mike has extensive experience, and concentrates his practice, in commercial and appellate litigation, as well as in bankruptcy and creditors’ rights. He has also taught legal writing at the University of Baltimore School of Law, with a concentration on appellate brief writing, and has served on both the Schools Committee of the Princeton Alumni Association of Maryland and the Board of Trustees of the Alumni Association of the Gilman School.

Michael lived for two summers in Sevilla, Spain, and is nearly fluent in Spanish. An avid baseball fan, poker player, and scuba diver, Mike hopes to live long enough to either win the World Series (of poker) or at least see the Orioles in the World Series again.

BACKGROUND

Areas of Practice:

• Commercial & Business Litigation
• Creditors’ Rights & Bankruptcy
• Appellate Litigation
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• General Corporate Matters
• Insurance Defense

Bar & Court Admissions:

• Court of Appeals of Maryland (1998)
• United States District Court for the District of Maryland (2000)
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (2001)
• Supreme Court of California (2003, inactive status)
• United States Supreme Court (2004)
• United States District Court for the District of Columbia (2006)
• Supreme Court of Nevada (2010)

Education:

• Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 1988
• Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, 1994