About Michael
Michael Waddington built a legal path that moves between military courtrooms and civilian practice. He studied history and Spanish at Duquesne University, earning a B.A. in 1993, then completed his J.D. at Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1996. Those academic years set the stage for a career that blends courtroom work, training, and organizational leadership.
His early professional life included service in the U.S. Army JAG Corps, where he is listed as a lawyer beginning in 2001. That period included instructional roles; records show him speaking for the JAG Corps in 2006 on attacking witness credibility and the rules of evidence. Military cases and military procedure remained a throughline. In 2006 he became a partner at Gonzalez & Waddington, LLC, a move that placed him in private practice while continuing his involvement in military-defense networks.
Waddington is admitted in several jurisdictions, including Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and New Jersey. He holds memberships in multiple state and national bars and professional groups. He has been active in the National Association of Court Martial Lawyers for many years and has served as its president since 2010. He is listed as a founding member of the National Association of Military Defense Lawyers beginning in 2006 and as a fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers since 2013. He also maintains long-standing ties to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and to state bar associations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Georgia.
Much of Waddington’s public profile comes from speaking and training on criminal and military-defense topics. Programs and conferences where he has appeared span concerns common to sexual assault and military cases. He has delivered sessions on cross-examining snitches, on questioning SANE nurses and DNA experts, and on defending military sexual assault cases at the NACML annual conference in Savannah in 2013. He has attended specialized seminars on sexual assault defense and has lectured on media issues tied to fair trials.
His career combines courtroom practice, military defense work and continuing legal education. He practices through González & Waddington, LLC and remains active in professional associations and training programs that address criminal defense and military justice. He currently practices at González & Waddington, LLC, where he handles criminal defense and military law matters.
