Speaking Experience
Michael has spoken to physicians at top medical schools (such as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins), hospitals and health care systems (such as Kaiser, MGH and Banner Health), professional societies (from the California Society of Addiction Medicine, to the Royal College of Physicians in London); policymakers and government-related organizations, from the New York Task Force on Life and the Law, to the Institute of Medicine and the United States Air Force; legal institutions, from bar associations to the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School; specialty audiences, from the International Congress on Tibetan Medicine, to U. Penn.'s Center for Bioethics, to the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School; and business groups (including the HyVee Corporate Officers' Retreat, TAP Pharmaceuticals, BodyWise International, and the Greater Detroit Area Health Council).

Education
Michael graduated from Columbia University (BA), the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley (JD), Haas School of Management at the University of California, Berkeley (MBA), and Iowa Writers Workshop (MFA).

Legal Experience
After law school, Michael served a law clerk to Chief Judge Thomas P. Griesa in the Southern District of New York. He joined the corporate department of Davis Polk & Wardwell (a Wall Street law firm), working in the banking, securities, and mergers & acquisitions departments, and representing issuers and underwriters in securities offerings; lenders as well as borrowers on financings; and a variety of companies in joint ventures and acquisitions. As a law professor for six years, he taught health care law, civil procedure, conflicts of laws, constitutional law, criminal law, and insurance law, and published a series of influential articles and books on complementary medicine law and policy. Moving to the West Coast, Michael joined Burkhalter, Michaels, Kessler & George and opened his own law practice, handling start-ups, bankruptcy, securities fraud, mediation, medical malpractice, intellectual property, insurance regulation, employment issues, and general corporate law.

Michael's Harvard Experience
As Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2000-05, Michael served as Director of Legal Programs at the Harvard Medical School Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies and Harvard Medical School Osher Institute. Michael's responsibilities included designing policies for a reproducible model of integrative health care within the Harvard hospital system; he also spearheaded negotiation among international coinvestigators of agreement around intellectual property issues for systematic evaluation of East Asian herbal products. From 2005-08, Michael holds a joint appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management at Harvard School of Public Health, where he directs a course on Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Health Law & Policy. From July 1, 2008, he serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. While at Harvard, Michael was awarded a Fortieth Anniversary Senior Fellowship at the Center for the Study of World Religions within Harvard Divinity School. His work received funding from federal and philanthropic organizations, including the National Library of Medicine; the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health; the Greenwall Foundation; and the Rudolph Steiner Foundation.

Additional Activities
Michael has contributed to important public policy initiatives, including serving as Consultant to Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public. He serves as President of the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine, a nonprofit created to explore frontiers of health law and policy. Michael gives seminars, media interviews, and policy guidance all over the world about contemporary legal issues in health care. Michael is a member of the Bar of California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C., and a Solicitor (non-practicing) of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

Interest in Complementary, Alternative & Integrative Medicine
While working on Wall Street, Michael studied Ericksonian hypnotherapy (the subject of his novel), Gurdjieff Work, and other tools for investigating consciousness. He also received ordination following graduation from the New Seminary in New York, and graduated from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Florida. Michael trained as a hospice volunteer with Dannion Brinkley's “Compassion in Action,” completed his teacher training at Full Spectrum Yoga, and became a Registered Yoga Teacher. He recently returned from a month's study of ashtanga yoga with K. Pattabhi Jois in India and is active in Yinstyle, a company with a conscience. Because his legal and policy background is complemented by experience with CAM modalities, Michael offers new perspectives on medicine and the way legal boundaries shape healing.

A physician and medical school faculty colleague wrote: “Underlying his intellect is his creativity and ability to articulate the philosophy behind complementary medicine and the law beyond anything described. Michael is a visionary.” Michael's work has received many outstanding reviews from peers who are leaders in the healthcare and legal professions