Michael De Simone

Michael De Simone is a Senior Counsel in the West Palm Beach office of Locke Lord LLP. Prior to joining the Firm, he was in-house counsel at Ocwen managing several of the company's largest class actions and other complex litigations. At Ocwen, he also was responsible for internal investigations, regulatory investigations, regulatory compliance, and designing and implementing policies concerning TCPA compliance and the optional products program. Michael has demonstrated experience in mortgage litigation, especially TCPA class and individual actions and lender-placed insurance class actions.

Michael also has worked extensively as a litigator in private practice in matters involving complex commercial disputes, particularly complex financial services disputes involving structured finance, real estate finance and distressed assets. He has particular experience assisting clients in matters involving RICO and consumer protection actions, including claims under TILA, TCPA and state law consumer protection acts and other state law claims. Additionally, he has counseled hedge fund managers on various SEC and compliance issues, governance matters, investor relations, non-disclosure agreements and financial statement disclosures. While in private practice, Michael gained first-chair experience, among other matters, obtaining a seven-figure arbitration award for a client on a breach of contract claim.

Michael was also a former Assistant General Counsel for Ernst & Young where he managed the firm's defense of claims challenging its audits of financial statements. There, he managed teams that tried or arbitrated several matters to verdicts or arbitration awards.