Michael R. Schneider

Michael R. Schneider is a criminal defense and civil liberties attorney with over 30 years’ experience fighting for justice for his clients in state and federal criminal cases and in plagiarism, academic misconduct, and scientific research misconduct proceedings. Mr. Schneider has successfully defended individuals charged with a wide range of felony and misdemeanor offenses, and has won jury acquittals for clients accused of armed robbery, attempted rape, firearms charges, and other serious felonies and misdemeanors. Mr. Schneider has extensive experience in state and federal criminal appeals, new trial motions, habeas corpus, coram nobis, and other post-conviction proceedings. He has overturned convictions in four murder cases, has successfully mounted a First Amendment attack on the state’s Child Enticement Law and the threats-and-intimidation provision of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, has reversed the federal conviction of a labor union president wrongly convicted of Hobbes Act extortion, and has challenged the constitutionality of the federal habeas corpus provisions of the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Many of his cases have involved criminal and regulatory issues with a civil liberties, human rights, and national securities dimension. He has successfully defended clients in complex federal export violations cases, including obtaining the reversal of a conviction in an Arms Export Control Act prosecution and defending a high-level United Nations official before a tribunal convened by the UN General Assembly.

In addition to his criminal-defense work, Mr. Schneider devotes a substantial part of his practice to the representation of professors, students, physicians, postdocs, and scientists accused of scientific research misconduct at medical schools, hospitals, universities, and other research institutions, as well as before the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Mr. Schneider has almost two decades of experience vigorously defending university students accused of plagiarism, academic misconduct, and sexual misconduct at law schools, medical schools, and universities in Boston and in other parts of the country, including at Babson, Boston University, Brandeis, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Medical School, Holyoke, Tufts, as well as a number of universities in other regions of the country. Mr. Schneider worked with an out-of town law firm to obtain a landmark federal court ruling questioning the fairness of Title IX procedures mandated by the US Department of Education in campus sexual assault cases.

Mr. Schneider began his career as a public defender at the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), including under the late Brownlow Speer, later worked as an associate to Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, and served as Of Counsel to The Spangenberg Group, a consulting firm providing technical assistance in the area of legal aid and indigent criminal defense delivery systems in various states (Kentucky, New York, Texas, and Washington) and foreign jurisdictions (Cambodia, Chile, and China). Prior to forming the firm of Good Schneider Cormier, Mr. Schneider was a founding partner of Salsberg & Schneider, which was listed by US News & World Report as one of the Best Law Firms in America.

Teaching

Mr. Schneider was also a Lecturer in Law at Boston University School of Law, where he taught for many years a seminar on “Wrongful Convictions, Miscarriages of Justice, & the U.S. Criminal Justice System.” He has lectured at legal education seminars and law schools, and has authored articles on criminal justice topics.

Awards

Mr. Schneider has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America since 2003, and has been named as a Massachusetts Super Lawyer since 2009. He has a 10.0 out of 10.0 rating on AVVO and a 5.0 out of 5.0 AV Preeminent rating for his legal ability and professional ethics from Martindale- Hubbell.

Member

Mr. Schneider is a longtime member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (MACDL). He has been a cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and has served on the Board of Directors of both the national ACLU and the Massachusetts affiliate (ACLUM).