One of Michael's more notable cases was his representation of the Democratic National Committee in its response to Russian hacking in the 2016 presidential election. This high-profile work went on to be detailed in the bestselling books The Apprentice (2018), The Perfect Weapon (2018), Russian Roulette (2018), and Hacks (2017). Investigative reporters wrote about additional notable work Michael has done in two other important books: Power Wars (2015) and Dragnet Nation (2015).

Clients trust Michael with extensive privacy and cybersecurity assessments, advice on data collection and data access by governments, and representations before the DOJ, FTC, state attorneys general and Congressional committees. Michael has litigated prominent national security cases, and he counsels clients on classified government programs and foreign-based investments in or threats to U.S. infrastructure.

Michael has provided Congressional testimony in public and nonpublic hearings and has been frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other national media. Ranked as a leading privacy and data security lawyer in Chambers Global and Chambers USA, and listed among the Cybersecurity Docket’s Incident Response 40, he is regarded among “the best data breach response lawyers in the business.”

In addition to his eight years in DOJ’s Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section, Michael’s was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s Criminal Division, and he prosecuted white-collar and violent crimes at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Michael was a contributing author to DOJ’s manuals on Prosecuting Computer Crimes, Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations, and Prosecuting Intellectual Property Crimes.

Michael began his career in New York as an associate in the litigation department of an AmLaw 50 firm.