With more than two decades of enforcement and regulatory experience at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Michael brings a wealth and variety of expertise to advising and advocating for whistleblowers under the federal securities laws. Michael most recently served as Deputy General Counsel of the PCAOB for more than a decade. As one of the PCAOB’s earliest staff members following its creation by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Michael played a key role in developing and drafting the Board’s foundational rules, including its rules on enforcement and adjudications and its rules regarding inspections of auditors of public companies. Over 15 years, he provided legal and policy advice in all areas of the PCAOB’s regulatory sphere, including PCAOB enforcement actions addressing auditors’ violations of the securities laws, reporting to the SEC on possible financial reporting or other violations uncovered through inspections, and cooperation with foreign audit regulators. He also led the successful defense of all PCAOB inspection-related determinations that audit firms appealed to the SEC.
Before joining the PCAOB, Michael spent nearly a decade with the SEC, first in the Division of Enforcement, where he worked on numerous investigations, and later in the Legal Policy Group in the Office of General Counsel. Among other responsibilities in the Legal Policy Group,he reviewed and advised on a wide-range of enforcement actions throughout the country. He also played an instrumental role on the team that developed the rules adopted by the SEC in 2000 to modernize auditor independence requirements.
Michael began his legal career as law clerk to the late Judge Cornelia G. Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
