Michael is a California-based trial and appellate litigator who helps businesses and professionals challenge government agency action, respond to government investigations and enforcement actions, and enforce their rights in commercial disputes.
Mike has extensive experience seeking emergency and injunctive relief in affirmative challenges to government rules and actions affecting lawful business operations. He is frequently engaged where early strategic decisions determine the outcome and an agency’s compliance with structural or procedural requirements, or the permissible scope of its discretion, are the decisive issues.
In addition to affirmative challenges to government action, Mike has represented businesses and individuals in enforcement proceedings across administrative, civil, and criminal matters, including high-profile international investigations into government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He has represented numerous witnesses in congressional, Department of Justice, and state regulatory investigations. He has also conducted sensitive internal investigations for both companies and public agencies into public allegations of misconduct.
Mike understands that a government investigation or regulatory dispute is never only a legal problem. It consumes leadership attention, delays business decisions, and creates uncertainty across the business. He works to resolve that uncertainty as directly and completely as the matter allows, providing counsel that is specific and actionable, not cautious hedging dressed as advice.
What shapes how Mike approaches these matters is experience that many litigators do not have: he has been on the government’s side of these disputes. As both an Assistant United States Attorney and an enforcement attorney at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), he saw from the inside how government power should be exercised, where its limits can be found, and where the government’s cases are strongest and most vulnerable. He is also acutely aware of the important distinctions between a regulatory violation and potentially criminal legal exposure. This perspective allows Mike to move strategically rather than reactively, giving clients a clear and honest assessment of where they stand and how to move forward.
Mike lives with his family in Marin County, California, where he enjoys sailing, kayaking, hiking, coastal adventures, great food, amazing people, and all that this beautiful state has to offer. He serves on the boards of both a national and California nonprofit, has been selected as a member of an American Bar Association standing committee, is a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Free Speech, and has been recognized for his leadership in civil rights law.