Michael Skocpol
202.888.1741 | 2001 K Street NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20006
Michael Skocpol is Counsel at Gupta Wessler. Before joining the firm, Michael was an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), where he litigated civil rights and racial justice matters in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels. Before LDF, Michael litigated public interest and commercial litigation matters as an associate at Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. For the past several years Michael has also taught legal writing and oral advocacy as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Michael has briefed a wide range of appeals and dispositive motions, including in complex and expedited emergency appeals raising issues of first impression. He has also presented oral argument to several federal courts of appeals and a three-judge district court. Michael’s advocacy before joining Gupta Wessler included challenging state redistricting plans on statutory and constitutional grounds, briefing novel issues concerning the scope of federal antidiscrimination and civil rights laws, opposing efforts to undermine federal elections and the rule of law, and resisting motions to compel arbitration in a consumer class action.
Before entering practice, Michael served as a law clerk for Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Cornelia Pillard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Gary S. Feinerman of the Northern District of Illinois. After his clerkships, he was a Temple Bar Scholar in the United Kingdom.
Michael received his J.D. with pro bono distinction from Stanford Law School, and an undergraduate degree from Brown University. During law school, he was on the boards of the Stanford Law Review, the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the American Constitution Society, and OutLaw, the law school’s LGBTQ+ affinity group.
