Mike has extensive experience handling criminal and civil cases in both federal and state courts, at trial and on appeal. As an experienced defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, Mike has tried dozens of cases.

213.533.7032 mwfitz@corbfitzlaw.com

Mike has successfully represented numerous defendants in federal court in a variety of white collar cases. In a case alleging extortion, he obtained a judgment of acquittal at the close of the government's case. In a case alleging violations of the limitations on campaign funding, he successfully moved pre-trial to dismiss the bulk of the indictment. In each of the sentencings that he has handled recently in federal court, Mike obtained a significant downward departure under the Sentencing Guidelines, which made the defendant eligible for home detention or community confinement instead of incarceration in a federal prison.

Mike has represented numerous witnesses in federal grand jury proceedings, and has assisted corporations and individuals in responding to grand jury subpoenas for documents. He has also handled contempt proceedings and federal petitions for a writ of habeas corpus. Mike has represented criminal defendants in the Ninth Circuit and is the listed counsel of record in six reported Ninth Circuit criminal cases. On a pro bono basis, Mike volunteered to represent an indigent prisoner in his habeas corpus appeal. Mike serves as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. Mike has also served as one of two lawyers on the Ninth Circuit Attorney Admission Fund Committee.

Mike likewise has extensive experience handling criminal proceedings in the California courts. He has successfully handled cases alleging embezzlement, worker's compensation fraud, and violations of state campaign laws. Mike has also handled many state misdemeanor cases; these misdemeanor cases have often been dismissed pursuant to creative use of the civil compromise statute. The defendants in these cases have included the clients of large law firms that do not have a state criminal practice.

In civil actions in federal and state court, Mike has represented corporations and individuals in numerous cases involving securities fraud, intellectual property, complex commercial disputes, and civil RICO. Large law firms refer him cases where efficiency and staffing are dominant in the client's choice of counsel. Mike has also represented civil appellants in the California Court of Appeal.

On a pro bono basis, Mike was a Deputy General Counsel of the Rampart Independent Review Panel, which examined the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1994, he served on the Advisory Committee for the Office of District Attorney of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He also served as a volunteer counsel to the Special Advisor to the Board of Police Commissioners (the "Webster Commission"). Mike in 1994 received the Maynard Toll Pro Bono Associate Award from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

From 1988 to 1991, Mike served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California. As a federal prosecutor, Mike handled over twenty criminal trials and filed over thirty briefs in the Ninth Circuit. Mike's cases included the successful prosecution of a money-laundering ring masquerading as a legitimate business.

Before joining Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey LLP, Mike practiced at the Los Angeles office of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP, where he assisted in the handling of exceptionally large and complex civil cases.

Mike graduated from the School of Law of the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1985, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. He served as Managing Editor of the Industrial Relations Law Journal and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Criminal Law. After law school, Mike was a law clerk to the Honorable Irving R. Kaufman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mike received his bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1981.

Mike is a member of the State Bar of California, the Bars of the United States District Courts for the Central and Northern Districts of California, and the Bar of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a member of the White Collar Crime Committee of the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association (Los Angeles Chapter), the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association.