Michael Sanft Biography – Michael Sanft Wiki
Michael Sanft is a Tonga-born American trial lawyer known for his work in Nevada courtrooms. He serves as the lead trial attorney at SOS Injury Lawyers, a Las Vegas-based personal injury firm. Over the course of his lengthy legal career, Sanft has taken more than 150 cases to jury verdict and has handled litigation reaching as high as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. His practice has also produced favorable settlements and verdicts for hundreds of clients.
Sanft’s legal team includes attorneys who once represented the same types of corporations the firm now challenges in product liability cases. That background, combined with Sanft’s decades of courtroom experience and his standing among judges, lawyers and peers in Nevada’s legal community, has helped position SOS Injury Lawyers as a firm focused on pursuing accountability from companies accused of wrongdoing.
Sanft’s story began in Tonga, where he was born and raised before his family moved to the United States when he was 12 years old. After later completing an LDS mission, he attended BYU-Hawaii. According to his official biography, Sanft also connected with his Polynesian roots during that period by performing as a dancer at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Education
He went on to graduate from Brigham Young University and received his law degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 2001. Sanft is licensed to practice law in Nevada.
Tupac Shakur Murder Trial
Sanft is currently representing Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man accused of helping plan the 1996 killing of rap legend Tupac Shakur. During the defense’s opening statement, Sanft pushed back sharply against the prosecution’s case, describing its version of events as “fiction.” He argued that prosecutors lack solid evidence tying Davis to criminal responsibility and said that, nearly three decades after Shakur’s death, investigators have still not established a clear and definitive account of what happened.
Sanft also criticized the investigation as “biased,” “sloppy” and “incomplete.” Addressing jurors, he questioned what evidence actually supports statements Davis made in interviews or in his book, asking, “Just look at the actual facts. What facts do you have to support any of what Keffe D said in any of his interviews or the book?” He further argued that Davis’ public accounts could not be independently verified.
