Overview
Mike Kuzma advises companies on a diverse range of corporate transactions, developing agile solutions to assist with critical business elements ranging from entity setup and governance issues to asset and equity transactions. He also maintains a robust real estate practice in which he counsels owners, developers, landlords, and tenants on all aspects of complex commercial real estate transactions, including the leasing, purchase, and sale of real property. As part of his corporate practice, he represents foreign and domestic insurance companies before the Nebraska Department of Insurance, serving as local counsel in complying with applicable state and federal regulatory laws and corporate governance laws.
In addition to his primary transactional focus areas, Mike has deep experience in antitrust, spending years working on the sprawling In Re Auto Parts Antitrust litigation. With an extensive background in Japanese eDiscovery forged early in his career, he works with a diverse client base across both the U.S. and Japan. He is a valuable asset when conducting due diligence or investigations involving Japanese language data and documents, having earned an Advanced Japanese Linguistics Certificate from the prestigious Japanese Ministry of Education’s Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program prior to his legal career.
Before entering private practice, Mike helped lead the State of Nebraska Department of Economic Development’s trade office in Tokyo, Japan, and worked to establish another trade office in Shanghai, China. During this time, he gained experience in a wide range of industries, public-private partnerships, and complex international transactions.
Credentials
Education
- University of Nebraska College of Law (J.D.), with distinction
- Temple University Beasley School of Law, visiting NSEP Fellow
- Nebraska Wesleyan University (B.A.), summa cum laude
- Kwansei Gakuin University, visiting NSEP Scholar
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska
- Conducted comparative analysis of state insurance laws dealing with insurance Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and Own Self Risk Assessment (ORSA) against Japanese ERM and ORSA laws and regulations published by the Japanese Financial Services Administration.
- Served as outside Japanese language discovery counsel to three co-lead counsel for the direct purchaser plaintiffs in a long-running, multi-district class action lawsuit alleging price-fixing and bid-rigging by numerous automotive parts suppliers which emerged from the largest criminal antitrust investigation in U.S. history. This included 41 separate actions against more than 160 defendants, each involving different auto parts, different anticompetitive agreements, different conspirators, and different timelines, and resulted in the recovery of more than $1.2 billion in settlements for victims.
- Lamp of Learning Foundation, President, 2024-present
- Matters On Tomorrow, Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board, 2008-present
- Nebraska Wesleyan University, Business Law I and II, Adjunct Professor, 2014-2018
- David L. Boren National Security and Exchange Program (NSEP), Scholar, 2003-2004; Fellow, 2008-2009
- Japanese Ministry of Education, Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program (JET), 2005-2007
- Advanced Japanese Linguistics Certificate
- Nebraska Bar Association
- “M&A for American Small Businesses,” Senshu University, January 2016
- “An Introduction to Carbon Emissions Taxes and the Possible Effects of the American Clean Energy and Security Act,” Tax Notes, October 2009
- “Kicking the Habit: Nebraska’s 1905 Anti-Cigarette Law,” Nebraska History Magazine, July 2005