M. Blane Michael

Martin Blane Michael (February 17, 1943 – March 25, 2011) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Education and career Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Michael grew up in Grant County, West Virginia, and in 1965 he earned an Artium Baccalaureus degree, magna cum laude, at West Virginia University, where he was student body president and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended New York University School of Law, where he earned a Juris Doctor in 1968. He spent three years in private practice (at the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell) before becoming an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1971, handling criminal cases. Michael's contemporaries in the United States Attorney's Office included John M. Walker Jr. and Richard Ben-Veniste. For family reasons Michael returned to his home state in 1972, becoming a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of West Virginia. From 1973 to 1975 he was in private practice in Petersburg, West Virginia, and he served for one year as a law clerk to United States District Judge Robert Earl Maxwell of the Northern District of West Virginia from 1975 to 1976. After John D. Rockefeller IV was elected Governor of West Virginia, Michael served from 1977 to 1980 as Counsel to the Governor. In 1981 he returned to private practice (at the state's oldest and largest law firm, Jackson Kelly, in Charleston, West Virginia), where he worked as a commercial litigator until his appointment to the Court of Appeals in 1993. While in private practice Michael also served at one point as campaign manager for the re-election of United States Senator Robert C. Byrd.