Michael Davis has thirty years of experience in a variety of legal settings in both state and federal court. His major areas of practice have been criminal defense (trial and appellate), and education law. He practiced as a legal services attorney and public defender in Kentucky before moving to Minnesota in 1989. Davis is a former Executive Director of the Neighborhood Justice Center, Inc. In addition to being in private practice in Saint Paul for the past fifteen years, he is also part time public defender with the Second Judicial District Public Defender's Office and a panel attorney with the Minnesota federal public defender. Davis has been a member of the Hamline University School of Law adjunct faculty since 2003, teaching the weekday Innocence Clinic and student directors.

Students working in the Innocence Clinic under Davis helped in the exoneration of an innocent man. Read more:
Star Tribune: "A decade lost and a decade gained"