Michael D. Raffaele
he/him/his
For the past twenty years, Michael has dedicated his practice of law to the principle that every person deserves to be treated as a full human being. He consequently represents students, kids, and families in a thorough array of education civil rights and related matters, including special education, higher education accommodations, school discipline, truancy, juvenile justice, discrimination based on protected class membership, and Title IX investigations.
Michael graduated law school in 2001 and started his practice at the multinational law firm of Akin Gump Straus Hauer & Feld, LLP, where he was assigned to complex civil litigation. He then moved to Pepper Hamilton, LLP (now Troutman Pepper Locke), where his practice as an associate included pharmaceutical products liability litigation, medical malpractice, and white-collar criminal defense of health care workers and organizations. Michael then became an attorney with the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where he represented indigent persons accused of federal crimes at the trial and appellate levels for six years. After leaving the FCDO, Michael served as Associate General Counsel for A.I. duPont Hospital for Children (now Nemours Children’s Hospital, Wilmington).
Michael is also one of those rare lawyers who is equally at home in trial court and appellate court. He has litigated appeals, both via briefing and oral argument, in special education and school discipline matters before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, and Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Michael has also litigated multiple juvenile justice appeals before the Pennsylvania Superior Court and Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Michael is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Cornell University. He is married and a father to three wonderful children who, sadly, can now predict when he is about to tell a dad joke just by the sound of his inhaling in anticipation of telling it, so he mostly doesn’t get to tell them at all anymore. In his free time, he enjoys singing, baking, and wilderness camping.
Michael’s practice at Raffaele Law includes:
- Ensuring that students with disabilities in elementary school through high school receive appropriate accommodations and specially-designed instruction;
- Ensuring that students in higher education receive reasonable accommodations;
- Defending students, particularly students with disabilities, facing allegations of school discipline violations;
- Defending students, particularly students with disabilities, facing allegations of truancy;
- Counseling families on the best responses to allegations of misbehavior or of delinquency;
- Vindicating the rights and interests of students facing discrimination based on their membership in protected classes;
- Advising students, particularly students with disabilities, in Title IX proceedings;
- Appellate litigation.
Education
- J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 2001
- B.A., Government, Cornell University, 1998
Court Admissions
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- Supreme Court of Virginia
- District of Columbia Court of Appeals
- United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- United States District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
- United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
- District Court for the District of Columbia
- Third Circuit Court of Appeals
- Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
