Introduction

Michael specialises in international criminal law. He has over 15 years' experience working at five different international criminal courts and tribunals in a prosecution, defence, and judicial capacity. He has worked on cases involving genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity alleged against defendants under a range of modes of liability including joint criminal enterprise, ordering, planning, and aiding and abetting. He has also advised on other modes of liability, including co-perpetration, indirect perpetration, indirect co-perpetration, and in any other way contributing to a group acting with a common purpose. The cases he has been involved in include:

• Prosecutor v Nyiramasuhuko et al (as prosecution counsel in the appeal involving six defendants convicted of genocide at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda).
• Prosecutor v Nzabonimana (as prosecution counsel in the appeal involving a former government minister convicted of instigating genocide at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda).
• Prosecutor v Charles Taylor (as a legal consultant for the defence at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, with a defendant accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity).
• Co-Prosecutors v Im Chaem (as a senior legal consultant for the defence at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, with a suspect accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity).

Michael's work acting on behalf of or advising a party to proceedings is informed by the perspective he acquired assisting international judges. He served as an associate legal officer for the appeals judges of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in drafting the final appeals judgment of that tribunal, in the case of Prosecutor v Prlic et al, involving six defendants convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Michael also has extensive experience providing legal advice on the laws and procedures of the International Criminal Court, including at the preliminary examination, investigation, pre-trial, trial, sentencing, appeals, and reparations phases of the ICC's proceedings. He is admitted to the list of counsel of the ICC and is a former secretary of the ICC Bar Association.