Michael draws on his unique experience across law and executive leadership to bring high level preparation, business insight, and a tenacious pursuit of resolution to every mediation.
Before founding Schwimmer Mediation, Michael spent decades in senior executive leadership roles—including CEO, President, and Executive Vice President positions—across both emerging and established companies in the technology, media, and entertainment sectors.
Over the course of his U.S. and international career, he negotiated hundreds of deals and resolved a wide range of complex commercial issues involving investments, partnerships, intellectual property development and licensing, content production and distribution, corporate governance, and employment matters.
Michael began his professional path as a commercial litigator before moving into international practice with Baker McKenzie in the São Paulo and New York offices. He later transitioned into in-house counsel roles at both high-growth technology startups and a publicly traded Fortune 500 company.
This combined legal and business background allows Michael to approach mediation with a practical, real-world perspective—recognizing not only the legal parameters of a dispute, but also the strategic, financial, and organizational considerations that influence resolution.
Michael earned his J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law and his B.A. in Economics and Spanish, magna cum laude, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His executive education includes the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program and advanced mediation training through the Straus Institute’s Mediating the Litigated Case program at Pepperdine University.
Having lived in Spain and Brazil and worked extensively throughout Latin America, Michael is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. This linguistic and cultural fluency enables him to effectively support mediations involving parties across the U.S., Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.
Leadership Highlights & Key Roles
Leadership/Executive Experience
Global President, Platform Strategy and Revenue
TelevisaUnivision
World's largest Spanish language media company; result of merger between Univision (U.S.) and Televisa (Mexico)
Group President, Sling; Executive Vice President, Dish
EchoStar Corporation (formerly Dish)
Streaming media pioneer (Sling); Ad sales leader for satellite and streaming businesses (Dish Media)
Chief Executive Officer; Board of Directors
Fuse Media
Cable television and streaming media company; venture capital funded
Private Practice and In-House Experience
Associate General Counsel, Echostar
Dish
Satellite television; from launch to 4th largest U.S. distributor of television.
General Counsel
GeoVision Systems Ltd.
GIS software developer; venture capital funded tech startup.
Associate Attorney
Baker McKenzie
Law firm; cross-border transactional practice (São Paulo/New York).
Michael is available to consult with counsel at any stage of a dispute to discuss the matter and potential paths to resolution. Feel free to reach out to Michael directly by email to schedule a confidential call.
