Michael Butler is the Director of the Professional Law Institute (PLI) and a Senior Lecturer in Law in The Dickson Poon School of Law, Kings College London.

Michael is a former partner of international law firm Squire Patton Boggs where he was head of training. He then became the General Counsel for the first private equity backed Alternative Business Structure in the UK.

He commenced full-time teaching of law students three years ago and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Michael has practised for over 25 years in the field of law as it relates to technology. His practice experience focused on non-contentious outsourcing and joint ventures.

His academic interests include the application of ethics to technology and he has a particular passion for the training of skills for in-house lawyers.

Research Interests 

• The ethics of technology
• Skills and behaviours training for in-house lawyers.

Selected Publications 

• Legal Technology and the In-House Counsel chapter in The LEGALTECH Book (Wiley 2020)
• “E-Commerce and Convergence: A Guide to the Law of Digital Media” (Bloomsbury 2011)

Teaching 

• MSc (2022) – Business Organisations and the Company
• 7FFLA076 Information Privacy & Data Protection