PAUL R. MICHEL was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in March of 1988. On December 25, 2004, he assumed the duties of Chief Judge. Since his elevation in 2004 to Chief Judge, he has served as one of 27 judges comprising the Judicial Conference of the United States, the governing body of the Judicial Branch. In 2005 he was appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve on the seven-judge Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference. Chief Judge Michel has written over 800 opinions in the diverse legal areas covered by his circuit: patent, government contracts, international trade, veterans' benefits, government takings of private property, tax, childhood vaccine injuries, military promotions, trademark, civilian government personnel, and whistleblower cases. By designation of the Chief Justice, he has also regularly sat with the Second, Third and Ninth Circuits, where he decided constitutional, criminal, administrative, securities, immigration and state law cases. Prior to his appointment, Chief Judge Michel served in the executive and legislative branches of the government for 22 years. Following graduation from Williams College in 1963 and the University of Virginia Law School in 1966, Michel served as Assistant District Attorney and then Deputy District Attorney for Investigations under Arlen Specter in Philadelphia, where he was responsible for investigating police and public corruption. As Assistant Special Watergate Prosecutor in 1974-1975 under Leon Jaworski, he was responsible for investigating President Nixon's slush fund, Howard Hughes, Bebe Rebozo, and Nixon's secretary, Rosemary Woods. From 1975 to 1976 he was an assistant counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Church Committee), assisting Chief Counsel Frederick AO Schwarz in investigating abuses of civil liberties by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies targeting American citizens. Michel also helped draft legislation to ensure that NSA, CIA, and IRS practices conformed to the Constitution and statutes. From 1976-1978, he served under Dick Thornburgh as Deputy Chief of the Justice Department's new Public Integrity Section, where he directed the "Koreagate" investigation. In 1978 he was appointed by Benjamin Civiletti as an Associate Deputy Attorney General, helping to supervise U.S. Attorneys, the Criminal Division, the FBI, and the Marshals Service. He was one of the authors of the legislative charter proposed in 1978 for the FBI and of revisions to Attorney General's Guidelines authorizing and constraining certain FBI investigative practices. In 1980 he briefly served as Acting Deputy Attorney General. From April 1981 until March of 1988, he served on Senator Arlen Specter's staff, including as Counsel and Chief of Staff. There, he worked on legislation dealing with career criminals, arms control, gun control, mining safety, nuclear arms summit meetings and many other subjects. Most recently, Judge Michel conducted a mock trial on the clash between the President and Congress over the power to wage war for the American Bar Association Section on International law in 2008, was the keynote speaker at the December 5, 2008 Federal Trade Commission hearing on patent law reform, and served as a panelist for the American Constitution Society on immigration law reform in 2007. In 2006 Chief Judge Michel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on immigration litigation problems, possible immigration case reforms, and Court of Appeals review of decisions of the Immigration Board of Appeals. In 2008 Chief Judge Michel was awarded the first annual Lifetime Achievement Award by the Richard Linn American Inn of Court in Chicago for "Dedication to Justice for All," the Sedona Conference Lifetime Achievement Award for "Contributions to Intellectual Property Law," the first award for "Outstanding Achievement in the Area of Intellectual Property Law" of the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association, and the annual Judicial Honoree Award of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia. Chief Judge Michel was the recipient of the 1999 Jefferson Medal for "outstanding contributions to promote the progress of Science and Useful Arts," the 2002 Katz-Kiley Prize, and the 2005 Eli Whitney Prize. In September 2001, he was made a Member of Honor of the Federation Internationale des Conseils en Propriete Industrielle (FICPI), the worldwide organization of patent attorneys in private practice. He has addressed FICPI World Congresses and Forums annually for over a decade. Since 2003, he has annually been named by Managing Intellectual Property magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential People in the world in intellectual property. In March 2007, Chief Judge Michel was awarded the New York Intellectual Property Law Association's Fifth Annual Outstanding Public Service Award for "unwavering commitment to the administration of justice." Judge Michel has taught courses in appellate practice and procedure and in patent enforcement at George Washington University's National Law Center, and appellate advocacy at John Marshall Law School, which awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in June 2001. He served on advisory boards for George Washington University's National Law Center and the University of Maryland Law School, and has spoken at conferences or seminars at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UC Berkley, the University of Chicago, DePaul, University of Washington, Texas, USC, Howard, Northwestern, Loyola (Chicago), Georgetown, Fordham, Case Western, Houston, Lewis & Clark, Franklin Pierce, NYU, U VA, and Chicago Kent law schools. He has also taught seminars for the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany and for the Australian Law Association in Canberra. Chief Judge Michel was a founding member of the George Washington Inn of Court, and a founder, and, in 2003 president, of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court.