Michael Sweeney was appointed Chief Campus Counsel for UC Davis in 2018. Prior to his appointment he served as Senior Campus Counsel starting in 2007. Before to joining UC Davis, Michael was a civil rights attorney for the Civil Rights Enforcement Section of the California Attorney General’s Office and the California Civil Rights Department (previously the Department of Fair Employment and Housing), where he served as the chief counsel. He received his J.D. from University of San Francisco, School of Law, and his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. As the chief legal counsel for UC Davis, Michael oversees a team of eight campus and UC Davis Health lawyers. His practice area is focused on civil rights compliance, First Amendment, academic affairs, student affairs, police public accountability, and governance. Prior to UC Davis, Michael was a longtime civil rights enforcement litigator. He litigated employment, housing, public accommodations, and hate violence civil rights cases, and specialized in sexual harassment and sexual violence, housing discrimination, and hate violence. As the chief counsel of the nation's largest state civil rights agency, he oversaw a team of 16 civil rights lawyers, and was the chief legal advisor for California’s 200+ civil rights investigators.