Michael O'Brien

Michael O’Brien joined Becket as Counsel in 2023. His practice focuses on First Amendment and appellate litigation.

Before joining Becket, Mike worked at Jones Walker LLP in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he litigated commercial, healthcare, and criminal matters at the trial and appellate levels. His appellate experience includes a 12-0 victory before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in which the court overruled two of its prior precedents.

Before that, Mike was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago, Illinois, where he litigated antitrust class actions and commercial appeals. At both Jones Walker and Kirkland, Mike maintained an active pro bono practice, representing prisoners and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. In addition to his experience in private practice, Mike served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas M. Hardiman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Judge Stephen A. Higginson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Mike graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a Rubenstein Scholar and served as Comments Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He was the Valedictorian of his graduating class at the University of Notre Dame, where he earned his B.A. summa cum laude with a major in the Political Science Honors Program and a minor in Philosophy.

Mike met his one-of-a-kind wife, Viviana, in law school. They live in her hometown of New Orleans with their young son and forever-young cockapoo. Alongside family and friends, they enjoy the finer things in life: crawfish boils and homemade Korean barbecue.