Michael Edwards is a Staff Attorney on the Community Economic Development and Housing Teams. As a member of the Tenant Advocacy Project, Michael has successfully defended tenants in eviction cases, securing outright dismissals, negotiating settlements that avoid homelessness for his clients, and winning money judgments for tenants experiencing landlord abuse.

Michael’s primary specialty area is taxation. In private practice, Michael advised clients big and small, from providing advice on choice-of-entity for start-ups to identifying tax-saving strategies for restructuring of multi-billion-dollar companies. After a stint with one of the Big Four accounting firms, Michael assisted in managing the international tax function for a Fortune 500 company. His accounting knowledge allowed him to forecast, model and analyze U.S. international tax exposure for multinational corporations. This required extensive knowledge of American law as well as the laws and treaties of foreign countries. Michael also previously served as an adjunct professor at Capital University Law School, where he taught Federal Income Tax and Federal Tax Procedure.

Michael has had the pleasure of utilizing his decade-plus experience in tax law in a variety of ways here at LASCO. As a member of the LASCO Tax Team Michael successfully secured refunds, fought fraudulent tax return preparers, stopped levies, and negotiated affordable collection alternatives for many clients. Now, he is able to leverage his business tax expertise to forward the CED Team mission of building wealth in historically impoverished minority communities, providing critical tax, accounting, and legal advice to start-up businesses and nonprofits serving these communities.

Michael first became involved with LASCO as a volunteer with the Tax Clinic in 2016.

Bar & Court Admissions

• State of Ohio 
• United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio 
• United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
• United States Tax Court

Bar Activties

• John Mercer Langston Bar Association, Member 
• American Bar Association, Section of Taxation, Member

Volunteer & Community Activities

• NAACP Columbus Chapter, Member 
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Member
• Co-Op Columbus, Member/Facilitator

Education

• University of Baltimore Law School (LL.M., 2014) 
• Community College of Baltimore County (A.A.S., 2010) 
• Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law (J.D., 2007) 
• University of Delaware (B.A., 2004)

Personal

Michael says the best thing about his work is getting to help the most vulnerable people in our city. Providing them with a voice in a system designed against them brings Michael immense joy, and hopes to help change the system, one client at a time.

In his spare time, Michael loves live sports, traveling to jazz festivals, and aspires to be an author one day.