Michele Nielsen (she/her/hers) is a litigation associate in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson who focuses on civil litigation with an emphasis on contract disputes and arbitrations.
Ms. Nielsen has been to trial, taken and defended depositions, drafted motions, conducted witness interviews, and successfully argued a motion to compel arbitration. She has experience with managing all phases of expert litigation, including reports, declarations, depositions, and trial testimony. Ms. Nielsen was previously a litigation associate at a leading law firm. In this role, she managed a large fact development team of associates. Ms. Nielsen maintains a robust pro bono practice focused on criminal justice reform, prison litigation, and race discrimination. She has published twice in the UCLA Law Review on incarceration and criminal justice issues. At the firm, she is actively involved in the Fellows Program for aspiring law students from diverse backgrounds, the LGBTQ Initiative, and projects for the Combatting Systemic Racism Task Force.
Prior to joining Munger Tolles, Ms. Nielsen clerked for the Honorable Jacqueline H. Nguyen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also externed for the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcón of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit while a law student. Ms. Nielsen earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where she served as staff editor of the UCLA Law Review and chief managing editor of the Entertainment Law Review. She was elected Order of the Coif. Prior to law school, she worked for an estate planning law firm in Laguna Beach, California. She received an A.B., with honors, in anthropology from Princeton University.