About Michael
Michael Downey earned his law degree from Washington University School of Law in 1998 after completing undergraduate studies at Georgetown University in 1992. Those years shaped a practical approach to law. He moved from classroom to courthouse at a time when federal and state practice patterns were changing rapidly.
Soon after earning his J.D., Downey gained admission to practice in Missouri in 1998. That same year he secured admission to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He expanded his federal credentials over the next decade, gaining admission to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois in 2000, to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in 2003, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2004, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in 2004, and to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in 2005. He was admitted to practice in Illinois in 1999.
That accumulation of court admissions tracks a career that moved steadily into specialized practice. Downey now identifies as a legal ethics lawyer. His work involves advising lawyers, law firms and organizations on questions about professional responsibility. He prepares ethics opinions, counsels on conflicts issues, and represents lawyers in disciplinary and regulatory matters. He also helps draft or revise firm policies intended to address client confidentiality and compliance with court rules.
Colleagues describe his approach as methodical. He tends to break complex ethics questions into discrete issues. That makes dense rules easier to apply in everyday practice. Clients range from solo practitioners to small firms. The matters he handles often center on the intersection of practice management and lawyer conduct, where a factual read of rules matters more than abstract theory.
Over the years Downey's court admissions have given him a practical sense of how regional practice norms and federal procedure interact. He has handled matters in both state and federal settings across Missouri and Illinois and in several federal circuits and districts. That breadth allows him to advise clients who practice in multiple jurisdictions and to anticipate procedural questions that can arise in an ethics inquiry.
He practices at Downey Law Group LLC, where his current work centers on legal ethics counseling, disciplinary defense and regulatory compliance for lawyers and law firms.
