Michelle is a pragmatic, innovative and solutions-oriented corporate attorney and compliance leader with deep expertise in commercial matters.  She advises senior executives on a wide range of legal issues and develops risk-based compliance programs that align with business objectives and industry best practices.

 

Michelle began her legal career as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, a top Am Law 100 firm in New York, working with investment banks and private equity firms on complex corporate and commercial transactions. Then she became Assistant General Counsel at Thomson Scientific and Thomson Reuters, where she created legal infrastructure to support multiple functions in the organization including sales, product development, strategic partnerships and content licensing.

 

She most recently served as Chief Compliance Officer of Cengage Learning, a $1.5 billion global education technology company and Clarivate, a $2.5 billion publicly traded information services company.  At both organizations, Michelle built their compliance function and instilled a strong ethical culture by successfully launching compliance programs that enabled business growth through partnership and flexible risk management.

 

Michelle is passionate about music and music education and currently serves as President of Music For Youth, a Connecticut-based nonprofit. With over 15 years of involvement in the nonprofit music community, she has led initiatives spanning governance, organizational strategy, development, board recruitment and program management.
 

Prior Law Firm Experience

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Robinson, Silverman, Pearce Aronsohn & Berman
 

Prior In-House Experience

Thomson Reuters
Clarivate
Cengage Learning
 

Education

UCLA School of Law (J.D.)

UC Berkeley (B.A.)

 

Bar Admission

New York

California (Inactive)