Professional Experience

Every dispute is unique. That is why at the inception of each case, clients receive a comprehensive analysis of all legal, practical and budgetary issues. This analysis along with a series of strategic options, a preliminary budget and unvarnished advice allows clients to face litigation or other business disputes with a realistic understanding of the process and their likely results.

Practice Areas:

• Civil Litigation
• Business Torts including fraud
• Professional Malpractice and breaches of fiduciary duty
• Complex damage cases

Industry Expertise:

• Aerospace
• Construction
• Healthcare
• Professional Malpractice 

Professional Affiliations and Activities:

• Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America
• Co-Founder, Aviation Law Institute of America
• Business Law Section and International Law Section of the Florida Bar
• Member, Diversity Law Institute
• Member, The Trial Law Institute

Pro bono, Civic and Community Activities:

• Republican Jewish Coalition , Member
• American Israel Public Affairs Committee
• Middlebury College Alumni Interviewer
• Greater Miami Hillel, Former Outside Board Member and Chair
• Member, Florida Association of Managing Partners
• Padi Certified Scuba Diver
• United States of America Goju Federation, 4th Dan
• Member, NRA
• Frontsight Firearms First Family

Bar Admissions:

• Florida Bar
• Eleventh Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Trial Bar
• Southern District of Florida

Education:

• University of Miami School of Law, J.D., Cum Laude, 1990
• Middlebury College, B.A. Philosophy, 1987

Michael D. Ehrenstein
mde@ecclegal.com
Ehrenstein Charbonneau Calderin
501 Brickell Key Drive, Third Floor
Miami, Florida 33131
305.722.2002

Representative Engagements

Aviation: Represented logistics supplier of overhauled aircraft engines in dispute with airline concerning non-payment for several 747 engines and counterclaims for breaches of warranty and fraud. Obtained an 8 million settlement for the client (which was 100% of what was owed plus my fees).

Aviation: Represented supplier of overhauled commercial aviation landing gears in a dispute with a maintenance repair and overhaul facility concerning claims against the supplier for wrongful replevin. Our client prevailed when the court entered a rare judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

Aviation: Represented supplier of military equipment in a dispute with a foreign maintenance overhaul and repair facility concerning its refusal to timely deliver the equipment to a foreign government and US ally. The case was resolved by the issuance of an extraordinary mandatory injunction, compelling the foreign defendant to immediately relinquish the gear and deliver it to the foreign government.

International: Represented foreign government in litigation to enforce its intellectual property rights in product manufactured abroad and sold within the United States when importer fraudulently registered the mark as its own. Case settled.

International: Represented minority shareholder in foreign cement manufacturing concern squeezed out of ownership and management. Case required litigation in the Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Spain, and Panama, multiple appeals in each jurisdiction, with an end result of an arbitration award in favor of our client.

International: Represented foreign investor in local real estate defrauded by local agent with lender's complicity. Case settled when local agent was convicted of criminal fraud based lender's exposure for aiding and abetting.

Construction: Represented contractor on public project against municipality and surety for wrongful termination of construction contract. Contractor obtained a substantial settlement when we managed to plead and survive summary judgment on claim for damage cause by impairment to bondability of contractor caused by wrongful termination, substantially augmenting potential exposure to the municipality and surety.

Construction: Represented a condominium association damaged by windstorm in claims against architect and engineers for costs of rebuilding and replacing pipes bringing water to rooftop air conditioning chillers. Case settled when windload analysis established building sway during storm caused pipe damage (and likely could cause substantial additional damage).

Construction: Represented condominium association in action against engineers, contractors, and material suppliers for damage caused by water infiltration. Case settled.

Representation for/against Financial Institutions: Represented lender in complex foreclosure involving counterclaims of fraud.

Professional Malpractice: Represented seller of interests in hotel development and operations in an action against his former counsel for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty in the negotiation and perpetration of purchase and sale documents

Professional Malpractice: Represented investor in litigation finance agreement in litigation against counsel for negligence, breach of fiduciary, fraud, and aiding and abetting fraud in the settlement of underlying lawsuit.

Healthcare: Represented national ambulatory surgery center business in the enforcement of terms of purchase and sale of an ophthalmologist business.

Healthcare: Represented investment fund in complex series of interrelated lawsuits stemming from the purchase and sale of a imaging centers, including negotiation and resolution of qui tam action.

Healthcare: Represented physician in the nullification of restrictive covenants and re establishment of his ownership interest in an ambulatory surgery center business.

Honors and Recognitions

2013: Jacqueline Calderin and Michael Ehrenstein recognized as Top Lawyers for the 2013 edition of the South Florida Legal Guide

2012: Michael Ehrenstein was identified as a 2012 Top Rated Lawyer for Commercial Litigation

2007, 2010-2012: Michael Ehrenstein rated as a “Super Lawyer” in Super Lawyers Magazine

Publications

1990: Michael Ehrenstein, author of A Moralistic Approach to the Ozone Depletion Crisis in the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review Chapter 2A of Secured Transactions in Florida

Events

January 2000: Speaker at the Paris Air Show on the Legal Issues Surrounding the Development and Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Michael Ehrenstein presented at the Renaissance Symposium in Telluride Colorado for the Litigation Counsel of America on the Tao of Cross Examination

Michael Ehrenstein: CLE Presentations on: Conflicts of Interest; Deposition Preparations and Tactics