Attorneys

Partner

Michael McAuliffe

Michael McAuliffe has a diverse record of national accomplishment as an attorney and community leader. From his role a federal civil rights prosecutor almost thirty years ago to his more recent service the state attorney for Palm Beach County, a corporate general counsel and now a return to private practice, Mr. McAuliffe's professional experiences reflect his wide and far ranging interests in serving communities and making a positive difference in the lives of those around him.

In 2008, Mr. McAuliffe was elected by the voters in Palm Beach County to serve as the State Attorney in and for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit (Palm Beach County). As state attorney, Mr. McAuliffe led and managed approximately 125 attorneys across five offices. He served as the chief law enforcement official in the jurisdiction and worked closely with the public defender, the chief judge, the sheriff, and other leaders in the criminal justice system. While state attorney, Mr. McAuliffe led efforts to adopt and implement ethics reforms in the county resulting in a series of definitive grand jury reports recommending the establishment of an independent inspector general and an ethics commission. Mr. McAuliffe also worked with the Palm Beach County sheriff and police chiefs to address the issues of gang violence and pill mills in the community.

From 2012 to 2016, Mr. McAuliffe served as the general counsel at one of the nation's largest privately held companies. As general counsel, Mr. McAuliffe supervised the legal, environmental, regulatory, compliance, health & safety, government relations and communications functions at the company. Mr. McAuliffe's duties required frequent travel throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America.

After graduating from William & Mary Law School, Mr. McAuliffe joined the United States Department of Justice through its highly selective Honors Program in 1989. Upon joining the Justice Department, Mr. McAuliffe worked as a federal civil rights prosecutor in the criminal section of the civil rights division. At the start of his assignment in the criminal section, Mr. McAuliffe served for a period in 1989-90 as a special assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, DC, trying criminal cases in superior court's misdemeanor division and gaining invaluable trial experience.

During his tenure at the criminal section, Mr. McAuliffe investigated and prosecuted criminal civil rights cases including hate crimes, law enforcement misconduct and involuntary servitude/human trafficking cases. Mr. McAuliffe handled numerous cases of national significance including the successful prosecution of the leader (grand dragon) of the Louisiana Ku Klux Klan and thirteen of his associates for hate crimes.

From 1994-99, Mr. McAuliffe was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida (SDFL). As a federal prosecutor, Mr. McAuliffe handled an array of federal statutory crimes including bank robberies, fraud schemes, public corruption and drug offenses. From 1997-99, Mr. McAuliffe was a supervisory assistant U.S. Attorney and the chief of the civil rights section of the U.S. Attorney's Office. As the civil rights chief, among other cases, Mr. McAuliffe supervised the prosecution in U.S. v. Cadena, et al, one of the most significant modern slavery/trafficking cases in the United States.

From 1999-2002, Mr. McAuliffe was a litigation partner in the national law firm Holland & Knight LLP in its West Palm Beach office. Mr. McAuliffe managed internal investigations for corporate clients and handled numerous employment law litigation cases on behalf of clients in federal trial and appellate courts.

From 2002-08, Mr. McAuliffe was in private practice as a partner in the boutique law firm Rosenberg & McAuliffe, PL. Mr. McAuliffe handled numerous cases involved employment and labor law, commercial disputes and selected white-collar defense matters. Mr. McAuliffe's partner, Robin Rosenberg (his spouse) left the firm to become a circuit judge in Palm Beach County. Ms. Rosenberg served as a circuit judge from 2007 until her appointment in 2014 as a U.S. District Court judge by President Barack Obama.

Mr. McAuliffe has extensive experience teaching the law. In 2018 & 2019, Mr. McAuliffe was a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University School of Law teaching a winter session course. Mr. McAuliffe is an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary Law School for the 2019 fall semester. Mr. McAuliffe also has taught trial advocacy to lawyers through the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) in Washington, DC, and taught first-year law students legal research and writing as an adjunct professorial lecturer in law at The George Washington University's National Law Center. In addition, Mr. McAuliffe was a CEP Fellow and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of West Bohemia in the Czech Republic in 1993-94. During his time in the Czech Republic, Mr. McAuliffe helped establish the reform law faculty as the Czech Republic was reemerging as a democratic country after decades under communist control. Mr. McAuliffe also provided counsel to the Office of the Czech President Václav Havel during his time in country.

Mr. McAuliffe attended the University of Texas at Austin and received a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), graduating with honors from the Business Honors Program in 1985. Mr. McAuliffe attended law school at the College of William & Mary and received his juris doctor (JD) degree in 1989. While at William & Mary, Mr. McAuliffe, with two teammates, won the National Moot Court Championship, which was, and remains, the nation's premier law school advocacy competition.

As for Mr. McAuliffe's personal endeavors, he is an accomplished alpine mountaineer having climbed and reached the summits Aconcagua (at 22,838 ft. the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere), Denali (at 20,310 ft. the highest mountain in North America), Kilimanjaro (with his oldest daughter and at 19,341 ft. the highest mountain in Africa) and most recently Island Peak in the Himalaya (20,314 ft.). Mr. McAuliffe is an avid runner having completed two marathons (Marine Corps and Palm Beach) and many shorter races.

Mr. McAuliffe has received many awards and recognitions in his almost thirty year professional career. He lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Chilmark, Massachusetts, with his wife, Robin Rosenberg, and family. They have three children with one recent college graduate, one in college and one in high school.

Education

COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY LAW SCHOOL
Juris Doctor, 1989

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
B.B.A, cum laude, 1985

Affiliations

• Federal Bar Association, Member
• Palm Beach Bar Association, Member

Bar Admissions

• Florida; Washington, D.C.; US Supreme Court; US District Court SDFL