Michael Feldberg Named a Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Partner Michael Feldberg has been named a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient by the New York Law Journal and Law.com. He is one of only six attorneys recognized in the Lifetime Achievement category at the 2026 New York Legal Awards, honored on Thursday, September 3 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan. The award recognizes a career marked by exceptional achievement, leadership, and lasting contribution to the legal profession.

A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an honor held by fewer than 1 percent of the trial bar, Michael heads RJLF's White Collar Defense Practice and has tried more than 50 civil and criminal cases across nearly 50 years. Chambers USA calls him "an all-star" with "great strategic judgement" and "a wonderful lawyer who makes everyone around him a better lawyer," and ranks him in New York for both White Collar Crime and Government Investigation and General Commercial Litigation. He is ranked in the highest tier by The Legal 500 New York Elite, named a "Litigation Star" by Benchmark Litigation, and named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America, among other honors.

One of his defining wins came in his defense of Roger Austin, a retired Pilgrim's Pride executive. The Department of Justice indicted ten executives for fixing prices in the $28-billion-per-year broiler chicken industry. Michael tried the case three separate times before Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer in federal court in Colorado. The first two trials ended in deadlocked juries. In the third, the jury returned a complete acquittal. No attorney had ever taken the DOJ to trial three times in a single antitrust case and won. The result earned Global Competition Review's 2023 "Behavioural Matter of the Year (Americas)" award and coverage in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Reuters, Politico, and CNBC.

That win reflects a career of high-stakes results. Michael secured a complete acquittal for the CEO and Chairman of C.R. Bard in a seven-week federal healthcare fraud trial, even as the company paid the largest such fine in history. He represented Jeffrey Greenberg, former CEO of Marsh & McLennan, to a complete victory in a four-year fight with then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. He defended Barclays Bank in gold-price class actions with nearly $8 billion at stake, resolving for less than 1 percent of exposure. He guided Credit Suisse through the Parmalat scandal and represented former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. He began his career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

Building litigation practices has been a throughline of his career. He founded and led the U.S. litigation practice at Allen & Overy, growing it from zero to 30 lawyers, and chaired litigation at Schulte Roth & Zabel before joining RJLF to lead its White Collar Defense Practice.

Michael has also put his trial skills to work pro bono. Over six months, Michael led RJLF's New York team to three federal wins in immigration cases, each freeing a wrongfully detained person held without due process. Partnering with The Legal Aid Society of New York, the team earned a 2025 Pro Bono Publico Award.

His service extends well beyond his own cases. Michael sits on the Boards of Directors of UJA-Federation of New York, the 92nd Street Y, and the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Leadership Council of Facing History and Ourselves, the Lawyers Committee of The Innocence Project, and the Dean's Advisory Council at Harvard Law School.

Michael and his fellow honorees will be recognized at the New York Legal Awards on September 3, 2026 in New York City. For more on the event, visit Law.com's event page. 

Michael Feldberg