Michael was born in Manhasset, New York and grew up on Long Island outside of New York City. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1991 with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance along with a Bachelors of Arts in History. During his breaks from Notre Dame, Michael worked for a specialist firm on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He attended Valparaiso University School of Law, graduating with multiple honors in 1994. Michael passed the Bar in 1994 and has been a practicing attorney since then. In 2005 he graduated from the University of Florida School of Law with an LLM in taxation. He is licensed to practice in all state courts in the state of Florida, the Middle District of Florida and the United State Tax Court. Michael is a past president of The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division (the youngest one ever) and also served on the Fl Bar Board of Governors and its executive committee (2003-2005). Michael previously represented the 6th Judicial Circuit of the Florida Bar Young Lawyer's Division Board of Governors (1998-2003) before being elected the Boards President. He has served on the Florida Bar Continuing Legal Education Committee, Florida Bar Student Education Student Admission Committee, FL Bar Long Range Planning Committee and the FL Law Related Education Committee. Michael presently serves on the FL Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and the FL Bar's Committee on Professionalism and is on the Board of Directors of the Florida Bar Foundation which oversees the Florida's Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) program and funds programs which help to expand and improve representation and advocacy on behalf of low-income persons in civil legal matters and improve the fair and effective administration of justice. Michael is a Past President of the Clearwater Bar Association (2002-2003) where he was its youngest president ever along with being past president of the Clearwater Bar Association Young Lawyer's Division (1996-1998). In addition, he is a 2002 graduate of Leadership Pinellas. 2002 Tampa Bay Review's 40 Under 40 for the Tampa Bay area, and a 2003 graduate of the Pinellas County Sheriff Community Policing Institute. Michael was previously the Senior Associate at the law firm of McFarland, Gould, Lyons, Sullivan and Hogan, P.A. (1997-2004-Clearwater, FL) and was head of the firms workers compensation and labor departments. His practice areas included workers compensation, personal injury, labor, probate, estate planning and commercial litigation. Most recently he was a tax associate at the law firm of Abel, Band, Chartered (2005-2006-Sarasota, FL) in the Business & Corporate Counseling Group and Personal Services & Planning Group. While in Sarasota, he served on the Board of Directors for the American Cancer Societys Sarasota Unit and was on the Board of Directors for the Notre Dame Club of Greater Sarasota.Presently, he is an associate with the law firm of Fisher & Sauls. He practices is the area of Wills, Trusts & Estates, Estate Planning, Tax, Business Law and Civil Litigation groups and previously was Sr. Tax & Charitable Strategist at Raymond James Trust Private Wealth Management Family Office.

He also works extensively with charitable organizations on tax issues along with compliance issues. Michael is a member of both the American Bar Association and St. Petersburg Bar Association and Clearwater Bar Association. He was also the recipient of the 2005 FL Law Related Education Association Attorney of the Year and received a special FL Supreme Court Special Citation for his work with Hurricane Disaster Relief. As a result of his work with the Florida Hurricanes in 2004, he was labeled in the legal community as the "Master of Disaster". He also served as a charitable consultant during Hurricane Katrina relief for several of the states that were impacted. In Michaels spare time, he is presently on his second time serving as the President of the University of Notre Dame Club for the Greater Tampa Bay Area. He takes his Notre Dame football very seriously which precludes many people from talking to him on Saturday afternoons. Michael is single and has been previously named one of Clearwaters most eligible bachelors.