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Mike joined Ashburn & Mason in 2020. He has broad experience advising private and public clients on real estate development, land use and planning, municipal law, commercial matters, and eminent domain issues. Mike is also knowledgeable about airport law, including general aviation, and has earned his Certified Member (C.M.) designation from the American Association of Airport Executives.

Until joining the firm, Mike served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alaska, representing the Anchorage and Fairbanks International Airports. As the Airports’ general counsel, he was responsible for providing legal counsel on all aspects of their business, real estate, and governance issues. Mike also worked in the Special Litigation and Natural Resources sections of the Attorney General’s Office where he advised state agencies and represented Alaska in state and federal courts on a variety of issues including land entitlements, easements, natural resources, employment, and the First Amendment. 

Before making his home in Alaska, Mike was a member of a large Seattle firm, Foster Pepper PLLC. During his decade practicing Outside, he worked with private developers, municipalities, college officials, businesses, and individuals on a variety of land use, real property, municipal governance, eminent domain, and taxation issues. Mike’s cases ranged from helping a landowner vindicate his property rights against a neighbor who committed timber trespass by obtaining an appropriate settlement to leading a five-person team in securing land use and environmental review approvals for a 36-acre, $2 billion mixed-use development that will be REI’s new headquarters. 

Mike’s land use and planning experience goes beyond traditional legal practice. From 2009 to 2013, he taught the required land use law class for the Masters in Urban Planning at the University of Washington. Prior to law school, Mike worked as an Assistant County Planner for Island County, Washington. 

Mike has served on the Alaska Bar Association Law Examiners Committee since 2019 and on the Third Judicial District Mediation Panel since 2017. He has been a guest faculty member at the University of Wyoming College of Law Summer Trial Institute. Mike also strongly believes in pro bono publico service and has represented several domestic violence survivors in court proceedings.