Dr. Michael Davis

Biography

Mr. Davis served as General Counsel for the School District of Philadelphia, providing legal advice and representation for the School Reform Commission, the School District, and its officers and employees. He engaged and managed the services of outside counsel on an as-needed basis, serving as Assistant Secretary of the SRC. With 38 years of law practice experience across a broad spectrum of the profession, he was Chief Counsel for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Education from 1980 to 1983 and General Counsel for Wordsworth Academy from 2002 to 2009. Wordsworth provided behavioral health, child welfare programs, and special education services to children and adolescents in Philadelphia, Fort Washington, and Harrisburg. Mr. Davis was an associate partner at the Philadelphia law firm Blank Rome from 1977 to 1980 and returned to the Department of Education in 1988, specializing in management labor relations, employment law litigation, and education law. From 1988 to 2002, Mr. Davis served as in-house counsel for CIGNA Corporation, holding positions as Senior Counsel for Employment Litigation and Chief Counsel for Legal Affairs at Intracorp, a CIGNA subsidiary. He advised on legal aspects of managed care, utilization review, and regulatory compliance. In 2009-2010, Mr. Davis consulted for a non-profit organization supporting education for youth in underserved areas of Philadelphia. He holds a BA from Haverford College and a JD from Harvard Law School, and enjoys writing and reading poetry as a self-published novelist.

Research Interests