Bio

Immediately prior to joining Croke Fairchild, Mike served as Senior Advisor and Legal Counsel to Mayor Lightfoot, advising the Mayor and city leaders on legal, policy, and labor issues. Mike’s responsibilities included overseeing all of the major collective bargaining for the City, negotiating with members in City Council and in the General Assembly on pending legislation, and leading special projects including serving as the lead on legal aspects of the City’s COVID-19 response. Mike joined the Lightfoot Administration from the Division of Enforcement of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he was responsible for investigating and litigating alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act. There, Mike was the lead attorney on CFTC v. Kraft, one of the CFTC’s first manipulation cases utilizing post-Dodd Frank manipulation authority in Section 6(c)(1) of the CEA. He has significant experience investigating international cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms, and brought one of the CFTC’s first enforcement actions involving cryptocurrency – CFTC v. Bitfinex. Mike also led numerous investigations and enforcement matters including of CFTC registrants, exchanges, and other market participants. For his work Mike was awarded the Chairman’s Award for Staff Excellence in 2018. Prior to joining the CFTC, Mike practiced at Mayer Brown, focusing on complex commercial litigation and matters related to white collar defense and compliance. There, he conducted internal investigations and participated in grand jury investigations involving alleged corporate and individual wrongdoing. Mike’s civil litigation work involved both criminal and civil trials, hearings, and other contested matters, with a particular focus on clients in the financial services sector.