Michael J. Betts

Mr. Betts’s practice consists of 1) representing clients in commercial litigation, business disputes and securities/investment-related matters (including FINRA arbitrations), and 2) providing litigants and their counsel with alternative dispute resolution services, including serving as a mediator, arbitrator and early neutral evaluator.

Mr. Betts has litigated a wide range of cases over his more than forty years of practice. Mr. Betts has substantial experience in the following types of matters, among others:

• Commercial litigation;
• Business disputes;
• Securities fraud;
• Insurance and annuity fraud;
• FINRA arbitrations (both industry and customer);
• FINRA investigations and expungement proceedings;
• Trade secret and restrictive covenant litigation; and
• Whistleblower/qui tam cases.

In his litigation practice Mr. Betts handles matters by drawing on his diverse experiences, having begun his career with a large law firm (Reed Smith Shaw & McClay, now Reed Smith LLP), where he became a full litigation partner, managing a “boutique” litigation firm and serving as in-house litigation counsel for one of the country’s largest banks. Mr. Betts has represented both plaintiffs and defendants and both corporations and individuals, with his business clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to family-held businesses.

Mr. Betts is also an experienced ADR neutral. He is on the approved roster of neutrals for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and has been certified by the Court as qualified to serve as an E-Discovery Special Master and Mediator. Mr. Betts is also on the American Arbitration Association’s national roster of arbitrators for commercial and consumer cases. He also is on the approved list of arbitrators and mediators for cases administered by FINRA Dispute Resolution.

Mr. Betts was born and raised in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dickinson College in 1977, with a major in economics. Mr. Betts received his law degree in 1980 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review.