Mike Signer is an energetic and versatile legal advisor, policy strategist, and collaborative executive leveraging a diverse and high-performing career across the fields of law, business, civil service, and academia to build and execute policies, launch initiatives, and develop solutions that deliver growth, resolve conflict, drive consensus, and boost engagement.

His legal practice concentrates on two areas. The first is corporate and transactional law, with broad experience across the array of issues facing any company, from public to pre-IPO to early-stage, including transactions and negotiations, M&A management, risk mitigation, employee issues, board governance, and compliance. The second is complex regulatory and policy strategy, particularly for organizations facing compliance and policy challenges and opportunities across an array of jurisdictions. He has experience at the federal level, and particular expertise with multi-state and local strategy.

He is a member of the Virginia and Washington, D.C. Bars and the Fairfax Bar Association. He is a past Chair of the Business Law Section of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association.

His consulting work draws on his diversity of experience and achievements across legal and business strategy, policy development, policy communications, and community engagement. He has particular experience in fractional/outside legal and advisory roles.

He has specific expertise in AI and policy. He is a Senior Advisor to Statt, which supplies AI-driven public policy, regulatory, and geopolitical insights and data to turbocharge Fortune 500 companies’ work.

Most recently serving as North American Policy Director for Airbnb, he oversaw a team of 50 professionals executing strategy across federal, state, provincial, and local markets, including overseeing the Federal Affairs office. He also oversaw the monitoring of federal and state AI regulations, sat on the Responsible AI Working Group, and supported internal workstreams to empower policy through AI.

As Partner, VP, and General Counsel for WillowTree, he oversaw M&A transactions, negotiations of 8-figure agreements with Fortune 100 companies, and launched the government contracting and Social Impact programs, as the company scaled from 150 to over 1,000 employees.

As the Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, he managed complex crisis responses to national events, receiving awards from several national organizations, while delivering economic growth and progress on infrastructure, including housing creation.

He holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley , and a B.A. magna cum laude from Princeton University.

Dr. Signer can be reached at michael.signer@madisonpllc.com.