Profile
Education, courtroom work abroad, and public advocacy on how Americans are treated in foreign custody.
Michael J. Griffith
Michael Griffith received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from John Marshall Law School. He is admitted to practice in the State and Federal Courts in New York, among other jurisdictions. For over 20 years he has been a member and/or officer of the Criminal Law Committee of the International Bar Association.
He was a founding member of the International Legal Defense Counsel, with offices dedicated to representing Americans arrested abroad. He has counseled clients in prisons in over 25 countries and maintains a network of international criminal lawyers who coordinate with him in those defenses. In the event of a conviction, he can also assist with transfer back to the United States.
Mr. Griffith testified before the United States Senate as an expert witness concerning prisoner transfer treaties between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and as the representative for the International Bar Association on this topic at the United Nations Conference on Crime Prevention and the Treatment of Offenders in Cairo, Egypt. He has also testified as an expert before the House Foreign Relations Committee regarding the treatment of American prisoners abroad.
He has lectured before the International Bar Association on legal problems of traveling abroad and on the representation of Americans incarcerated overseas, among other topics. As an international criminal defense expert, he has appeared as a commentator for Nancy Grace, Court TV, and CNN, among other networks.
Beyond individual cases.
At an International Bar Association conference in Sydney, Australia, Mr. Griffith brought attention to Japan’s use of prison labor for the benefit of private companies. His discovery that fifty-four American prisoners — along with prisoners from twenty other countries — were being made to work eight hours a day, five days a week, in violation of international law led to worldwide press coverage and congressional hearings before a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee. He then traveled to countries whose citizens were similarly incarcerated in Japan and held press conferences with members of the Criminal Law Committee of the International Bar Association to urge those governments to protest the practice.
He contacted officials of the private companies he found were benefiting from that prison labor and threatened legal action if they did not discontinue it. Companies voluntarily stopped their use of it.
At the request of Bangladeshi lawyers, he traveled to Bangladesh to look into and report on the Special Powers Act, which permits detention without probable cause or warrant for up to six months. He met with members of Parliament, the Minister of Justice, and the former Prime Minister to urge abolition of the practice, and later raised the matter with officials of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute.
Present or past affiliations.
- Criminal Law Committee of the International Bar Association
- Nassau County (New York) Criminal Courts Bar Association
- New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
- Suffolk County (New York) Bar Association
- Inter-American Bar Association
- International Association of Prosecutors