Experience
Michael joined DWF as a Legal Director in our Commercial and Competition team in 2022. Michael has a wealth of experience advising public sector bodies across the UK on public law and commercial issues. Having started his legal career as a corporate and commercial lawyer,
Michael gained a wide array of public sector expertise working for the Scottish Government for 12 years both as a solicitor (in which advising on legislation and regulatory regimes was a key aspect of every role) and a senior policy adviser (leading a key policy team across two referendums developing policy and advising Scottish Ministers on highly technical matters of EU law and policy). He also spent time on secondment as a national expert with the Legal Service of the European Commission. Since returning to private practice in 2019,
Michael has continued to grow his expertise as a legal advisor on public law and commercial issues advising central government, local government, public bodies, housing associations and other charitable, sporting and commercial organisations on a wide range of public law and commercial issues including vires, regulation and governance, statutory interpretation, compliance with human rights law, FOI, data protection, public subsidies and procurement. He also has considerable experience of developing policy and drafting legislation and negotiating and drafting complex and high value commercial agreements.