Michael A. Cunniff was awarded a law degree magna cum laude by Suffolk University Law School in Boston, and an undergraduate degree in psychology cum laude by Boston College. He is admitted to practice law before the Supreme Courts of Maine and Massachusetts and their subordinate courts, as well as in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings as assigned to Mike a rating of ” AV Preeminent,” reflecting that peers in the legal community ranked him as having achieved the highest level of professional excellence, including in the categories of legal knowledge, analytical capabilities, judgment, communication ability, and legal experience, and as having met very high ethical criteria. Mike has been listed in Legal Leaders: Boston’s Top-Rated Lawyers in the fields of administrative, civil rights, and criminal law.
Mike began his law practice in 1999 after 27 years of federal law enforcement service with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and its predecessor agency, the United States Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. At the time of his retirement from federal service, Mike was a Supervisory Special Agent managing a Massachusetts-based multi-jurisdictional task force operating in the inner-city neighborhoods of Eastern Massachusetts, often concentrating on the suppression of drug-related violence. He served in permanent posts of duty in Boston, New York City, and Portland, Maine.
Enlisted to help prepare aspiring lawyers for the courtroom, Mike accepted an appointment from the University of Maine School of Law as a member of its adjunct faculty, where he served from 2007 until early 2012. At the Law School, he taught courses in trial practice, as well as sentencing law and strategy. Mike also regularly supports efforts to provide continuing legal education to the law enforcement community; he makes presentations to law enforcement audiences on topics ranging from constitutional criminal procedure to case preparation to situational uses of force and related police liability issues.