Mike represents many individuals, companies, local & national ag lenders, banks, and real estate agencies as their title, exchange and transactional services provider. In addition, he is also an approved and experienced contract attorney/closer for the United States Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the United States Fish & Wildlife Service. For more than the past decade, he has also worked extensively in the area of agricultural drainage.

Mike’s prior research efforts have been published in various treatises and legal reference books in the areas of real estate and land use law and practice. He’s also written and published a number of case reviews for Drake Law Review and the Iowa Agricultural Law Reporter and OP-ED pieces for the Des Moines Register. He is also a regular speaker at various state and national seminars in the areas of real estate, transactional and agricultural law.

Education

• Michigan State University, B.S.U.P., 1986, Urban Planning

• Drake University, J.D., with honors, 1991

Honors and Awards

• Drake Law Review, Notes Editor, 1990-91, Staff 1989-90

• Scholarship and Class Book Awards Recipient

• Iowa Public Justice Award, 1998, awarded by Iowa Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA)

• Martindale - Hubbell® Rated Attorney

• Best Lawyers in America®

• Top Lawyers in Iowa®

Publications

• Case Note, “Inverse Condemnation – A Temporary Flood Control Ordinance Held Not to be a Compensable Fifth Amendment Taking Contrary to Supreme Court Mandates: A Right Result for the Wrong Reasons?” 39 Drake L. Rev. 945 (1991)

Representative Cases

• Bormann v. Bd. of Supervisors, 584 N.W.2d 309 (Iowa 1998), 29 Envtl. L. Rep. 20, 235, cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1172 (1999)

• Gacke v. Pork Xtra, LLC, 684 N.W.2d 168 (Iowa 2004). Undecided issue from Bormann brief re-submitted with permission. Brief provided sole basis for the Court's holding in Section V of Gacke opinion.