Michael Roessler

Michael Roessler is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation law and a Partner of the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. He was named to Best Lawyers in America’s “Best Lawyers” list for Workers’ Compensation Law – Claimants in 2022 and 2023.*

Michael is a member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and has taught various pre-law classes as an adjunct professor of Political Science at Queens University of Charlotte.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Michael was a news and opinion journalist for the Mooresville Tribune (NC) and the Independent Tribune (Concord-Kannapolis, NC). He decided to leave journalism to pursue a career in law after working with local attorneys who were advocating for the more marginalized members of his community. Michael continues to comment on social issues via The Charlotte Citizen, his personal blog, and he also contributes pieces to legal publications such as the North Carolina Law Review, the Charlotte Law Review, and the Southwestern Law Review.

Michael earned his J.D. with honors from University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill, receiving numerous awards along the way. He was a Law Review editor and was selected to join both the regional and national Moot Court teams as well as the Broun National Trial Team, where he and his team were national quarterfinalists.

Michael has been with the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin since 2015, fighting to protect the rights of injured workers throughout the Carolinas.

Licensed in

• North Carolina
• South Carolina

HONORS/AWARDS/ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• “Best Lawyers” list* for Workers’ Compensation Law – Claimants by Best Lawyers in America, 2022-2023
• Broun National Trial Team, UNC Chapel Hill School of Law
  -- Selected for membership, 2006
  -- Member of regional championship team in the 2007 Texas Young Lawyers Association trial skills competition
  -- Member of national quarterfinalist team in the 2007 Texas Young Lawyers Association trial skills competition
  -- Coach of regional team in the 2008 Texas Young Lawyers Association trial skills competition
• Holderness Moot Court
  -- Selected as member of the National Team, 2006
  -- Member of regional team in 2007 competition sponsored by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the American College of Trial Lawyers
• North Carolina Law Review
  -- Volume 85, staff member
  -- Volume 86, Articles Editor

MEMBERSHIPS

• North Carolina Advocates for Justice
• North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist - Workers’ Compensation Law

PUBLICATIONS & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• “Why Aren’t You Working?: Medlin with Proof of Disability Under the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act,” Campbell Law Review (2016)
• Disbursements chapter in Personal Injury Practice in North Carolina, (3rd edition), North Carolina Advocates for Justice, with co-author Gary Clemmons (2015)
• “Public Education, Local Authority, and Democracy: The Implied Power of North Carolina Counties to Impose School Impact Fees,” 33 Campbell Law Review 239 (2011)
• “Mistaking Doubts and Qualms for Constitutional Law: Against the Rejection of Legislative History as a Tool of Interpretation,” 39 Southwestern Law Review 103 (2009)
• “Leandro: Reconsidering a Landmark, Rejecting the Power of Geography, and Returning to an Earlier Constitutional Age,” 1 Charlotte Law Review 149 (2009)
• “Recent Development: We Are Not Amused: The Narrow Interpretation of Title II’s Place-of-Entertainment Provision in Denny v. Elizabeth Arden Salons, Inc.,” 85 North Carolina Law Review 1259 (2007)
• Multiple news articles and opinion columns in the Mooresville Tribune (NC) and Independent Tribune (Concord-Kannapolis, NC) (2000–2005)

* For standards of inclusion, visit bestlawyers.com.