Michael has taught at Newcastle Polytechnic/Northumbria University since graduating with an LL.B in 1983. In 1983 he enrolled as a PhD student, obtaining a major state studentship awarded on a competitive basis by the British Academy, whilst commencing lecturing duties on a part time basis.  On obtaining a full time lecturing post in 1986 he transferred his PhD to a part time registration and was awarded a PhD in 1991, being promoted to senior lecturer in the same year. He was promoted to Principal Lecturer in 2008 and Professor in 2017, and Has been Head of Law since 2016, initially on an acting basis with a permanent appointment in 2017. He is also Director of the University’s Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies, which has a wide range of domestic and international members, both academics and practitioners from various areas of the domestic and international criminal justice system. He has published extensively on criminal and civil evidence in a variety of journals.

Michael’s research encompasses criminal and civil evidence. He has published extensively on those subjects in a variety of journals and was, for a number of years, contributing editor of Archbold Magistrates’ Courts Criminal Practice. In recent years, particular areas of interest have included expert evidence and legal professional privilege.

In relation to expert evidence, he was Principal Investigator responsible for a major research project relating to fingerprint evidence which was funded by the European Commission and a co-investigator under a European Commission funded project relating to DNA evidence. He co-edited a major edited collection on the reliability expert evidence in criminal proceedings. He was invited to give an Old Bailey Lecture on the subject to the Criminal Bar Association. He has worked with the Forensic Science Regulator to support her activities to enhance the quality of expert evidence in criminal proceedings. He engaged with the Law Commission to support its consultation activities in this area.

He is currently engaged with Rebecca Mitchell, an Associate Professor in the Law School, in ongoing research concerning the operation of legal professional privilege in a wide range of contexts, such as corporations, robots and Deferred Prosecution Agreements. This has already resulted in several published outputs with others due to be published/submitted and will form the subject of a significant planned funding bid in the relatively near future.