AYZ is Pleased to Welcome Phillip A. Michael to the Firm

February 26, 2024

Appel, Yost & Zee LLP is pleased to welcome Phillip A. Michael to the firm.

Phillip A. Michael joined the firm in February 2024 with more than 10 years of litigation experience including trying dozens of cases to verdict. His practice is focused on civil and commercial litigation, as well as education and employment law.

Prior to joining AYZ, Phillip served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. In that position, he represented Commonwealth agencies and officials in all manner of civil litigation, including administrative law, civil rights, employment discrimination, and education law. Phillip successfully defended agency clients in numerous matters, including a constitutional challenge to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s background review process for teaching permit applicants, a lawsuit alleging the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission violated a racehorse owner’s due process rights after his horse was disqualified from a race, and allegations that the State Ethics Commission initiated an investigation into a township supervisor without probable cause.

Phillip also previously served as an Assistant Public Defender with the Lancaster County Public Defender’s Office. Based on his training and extensive complex trial experience, Phillip was capital counsel qualified by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to represent individuals charged with death-penalty eligible offenses, a distinction currently held by less than a dozen attorneys in Lancaster County.

Phillip earned a B.A. cum laude in Political Science and English at Gettysburg College and a J.D. cum laude at Temple University Beasley School of Law. At Temple, Phillip won the Albert H. Friedman Graduation Prize for Most Outstanding Writing Project and the Barrister’s Award for Most Outstanding Trial Performance in the Trial Advocacy Program. He also completed internships at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Philadelphia City Solicitor’s Office and the Philadelphia Federal Community Defender’s Office. After law school, Phillip spent a year clerking for Judge Jennifer Sibum on the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas. Phillip is a member of the Lancaster and Pennsylvania Bar Associations.