Michael R. Klein

Michael R. Klein is Senior Counsel WilmerHale and chair of the Sunlight Foundation.

"Michael Klein has a wide-ranging corporate and securities practice that has, over the past 25 years, included substantial experience in a wide array of transactional, counseling, securities law enforcement and corporate litigation engagements.

"Mr. Klein has been actively involved in taking companies public, taking them private, and representing and counseling them, their executives and/or directors in both postures. In addition to performing these roles in routine circumstances, he has been designated “Special Counsel” to boards of directors and special committees of boards of directors of many public companies in a variety of settings. These engagements have included such subjects as control contests, reviews of internal controls and proper accounting, inquiries into questioned foreign and domestic conduct and on a variety of other matters related to corporate governance. Among the more notable control contests have been several that produced important decisions (e.g., Unocal v. Mesa Petroleum; Bass v. Evans (Macmillian I); and Literary Partners v. Time, Incorporated (Time-Warner I). Mr. Klein also has counseled and litigated successfully a number of cases in opposition to federal agencies, as well as intra-corporate contests.

"Mr. Klein brings to his practice an understanding of corporate issues and a depth of personal experience in management and on the boards of several publicly held corporations including: Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ), 1987 to date; Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Perini Corporation (AMEX) 1997-date; Director and Chairman of the Governance and Nominating Committee of SRA International, Inc. (NYSE) 1999-date; Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of its Board of Directors, National Education Corporation (NYSE), 1990 to 1997; Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of its Board of Directors, Steck-Vaughn Corporation (NASDAQ), 1994 to 1998; Vice Chairman of the Board, Chief Administrative Officer, Republic Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ), 1990 to 1991. In addition, he has played an active role in a number of private corporations, including: Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Precept Mortgage LLC, 1998 to date; director, SRA International, Inc., 1996 to date; and director, FirstHome Brokerage LLC, 2000 to date; and non-profit entities: Trustee, American Himalayan Foundation, 1996 to date; Trustee, Center for Law in the Public Interest (public interest law firm), 1993 to 1997, 1979 to 1991; Member, American Law Institute, 1982 to date; Chairman, Advocates for the Public Interest (public interest law firm), 1987 to 1990; Editorial Board, Insights (corporate and securities law journal), 1988 to date; Director, Support Center of DC, Inc. (non-profit management firm for non-profits), 1991 to 1995.

"Mr. Klein is an author and lecturer on a range of legal subjects focusing primarily on aspects of corporate governance and securities laws. He also has served as Adjunct Professor of Law, George Washington University, 1971 to 1975; Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Virginia, 1969 to 1971; and Associate Professor of Law, Louisiana State University, 1967 to 1969."