Faculty Profile: Michael Williamson

I graduated from Furman University in 1978 with a BA in philosophy, and from the Vanderbilt School of Law on 05/15/81. While at Vanderbilt, I represented clients in the Juvenile Law, Civil Law and Criminal Law Clinics under the direction of the director of each clinic. I have been licensed to practice law in the State of Tennessee since October 3, 1981, and have been in continuous private practice since that time.  I was admitted to the Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on January 22, 1982, to the Bar of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on April 7, 1982, and to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States of America on August 7, 1989. Over the 33 years since I was licensed in 1981, I have represented thousands of individuals in a variety of legal fields, including criminal law in both state and federal courts, juvenile law, family law, personal injury law, workers compensation law and involuntary commitment proceedings at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute.

I began representing disability claimants regarding their applications for Social Security disability insurance benefits, SSI benefits, Child’s SSI benefits, etc. in 1980 while I was in law school (in Vanderbilt’s Civil Law Clinic under the supervision of a national authority in this field, Frank Block). I have always been a sole practitioner and over the years my practice became more and more dedicated to representing SS disability claimants so that at the present time approximately 80 to 90 percent of my time is spent representing such claimants. To date, I have represented well over 1,500 SS disability claimants. I have extensive experience representing SS disability claimants in federal court.