Honors and Awards:

• Named to "Rising Stars" 2007-2011, listed under First Amendment, Media and Advertising Law, Southern California Rising Stars Edition.
• Awarded the State Bar of California Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services in 2007 and 2008.
• Recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award for Trial Advocacy. 

Bar/Professional Activity:

• Bar Admissions: California (1997); U.S. Supreme Court (2003); U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth (1999) and Eleventh (2001) Circuits; U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (1997); U.S. District Court for the Northern, Southern and Eastern Districts of California (2010).
• Professional Affiliations: American Bar Association, Communications Law Section; Beverly Hills Bar Association, Entertainment Law Section; Georgetown University Entertainment and Media Alliance; Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Scholarly Lectures and Writings:

• Speaking Engagements: Adjunct Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, classes taught include Litigating a Media Law Case and Libel, Slander & the First Amendment; Director, Loyola Law School Entertainment Moot Court Team, competing in Fall and Spring National Competitions in New York and Los Angeles; Speaker, Paparazzi Law In A Flash: Examining California’s Past, Present and Future, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California (February 2011); Speaker, Hidden Audio Recording in the Post-Pellicano Era – Understanding the Legal Pitfalls of Surreptitious Audio Recording, Entertainment Roundtable, Beverly Hills, California (June 2006); Speaker, Mediation – A Strategic Tool for Controlling Litigation, Association of Corporate Counsel of America, Los Angeles, California (May 2005); Speaker, Legal Ramifications of Surreptitious Audio Recording, Professional Investigators of California Annual Conference, Universal City, California (November 2004).
• Publications: Author, Are Computer-Generated Movie Stars a Possibility?, Communications Lawyer Journal, Winter 2007; Author, California Supreme Court Holds Out-Of-State Callers May Not Surreptitiously Tape Record Telephone Conversations With People In California, Privacy & Data Security Law Journal, October 2006; Author, What Recent Additions to California’s Anti-SLAPP Statute Mean to Media Companies, Communications Lawyer Journal, Summer 2006; Author, Hidden Perils of Audio Recording, California Lawyer Magazine, June 2004.

Representative Clients:

• Michael has done extensive litigation and counseling in the fields of trademark, trade secret and copyright law. He successfully obtained dismissal of an action on behalf of a production company that had been sued for idea submission theft arising out of a documentary series featuring profiles of Congressional Medal of Honor winners. Michael served as co-counsel on behalf of Mattel in the first highly-publicized trade secret trial over the origin of the Bratz dolls, with Mattel prevailing following a prolonged jury trial. Currently, Michael is defending entertainment companies Fox Broadcasting, 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions in a misappropriation lawsuit involving the hit show So You Think You Can Dance.
• Among his many defamation cases, Michael has represented public figures including Aretha Franklin, Martha Stewart and Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn, as well as media and entertainment companies such as Anschutz Entertainment Group. In addition, Michael helped win a complete defense verdict in a defamation action in Japan on behalf of Soka Gakkai International, a global association of lay practitioners of Buddhism. With the rise of social media, Michael has been involved in groundbreaking issues involving the law defamation and new media and technology. Recently, he represented singer Courtney Love in the landmark Twitter defamation case Dawn Simorangkir v.Courtney Love.

Educational Background:

• J.D., Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, 1997
• B.A., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1994