Michael is a member of the Intellectual Property and Litigation group. He joined Gilbert + Tobin in 1993 and was made a Partner of the firm in July 2001.
He is an Intellectual Property litigation specialist with substantial IP enforcement experience. He manages large enforcement programs in Australia, covering physical and internet piracy, on behalf of a number of leading Australian copyright owners. He has expertise in civil and criminal IP enforcement.
Michael is recognised as a leading Intellectual Property lawyer in Australia according to Chambers Global World's Leading Lawyers (describing him as a "formidable opponent"), Practical Law Company and by the Asia Pacific Legal 500 (describing him as "unrivalled for copyright enforcement").
He recently acted for the recording industry in its successful copyright infringement action in Australia against the operators of the Kazaa file sharing system (Universal Music v Sharman License Holdings) and in another leading case that found an internet service provider liable for copyright infringement (Universal Music Pty Limited v Cooper).
He is regularly quoted in the media on issues relating to copyright law and has given evidence to numerous Parliamentary Committees in connection with copyright law reform, including the Cook Committee that considered the US/Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Michael is an author of the Australian chapter of International Enforcement of Intellectual Property and has written extensively on the topic of copyright enforcement. He holds degrees in law (First Class Honours) and economics from the University of Sydney