Michael J. Gardiner

Success in trial courts and appellate courts, by trial and by written brief mark my career as do so some landmark properties and written reported decisions of the Rhode Island Suprme Court.   I am a widely experienced sole practioner, a downtown firm lawyer originally.

Some examples of things I've done that really meant a  great deal to the client.

There's the individual who had his third breathalyzer refusal and then while I had just won an appeal on his third, got his fourth breathalyzer refusal charge,and was  faced with a loss of license for five years and perhaps indefinetly. I won the trial on the fourth and won the appeal on the third  and got it dismissed at trial.  My client never had another problem, proving that justice was served.

There's an Aubon Pain on the East Side for more than twenty two years now, because I handled a controversy Au Bon Pain has really anchored that portion of the street and it seems the street was the better for it.

There are persons who faced a criminal sentence that did not receive a sentence because of how I handled their case. There are people who were told an accident was their fault by a consensus of all other persons, but I still recovered damages  for them. There are peoeple who were unfairly targeted by their employer and fired, but who were compensated with more than a severance.  There's a machine manufacturer whose designer will be more careful where he puts the valve next time and an injured worker paid was paid not only workers compensation but a settlement  with the machine manufacturer.

I've handled matters for an important utitlity and a municipapltity too. There are rate payers for a utiltity who didn't absorb the costs of costly installations because, as part of a team, we showed they weren't necessary.

There's a clients whose property couldn't sell for a year at $350,000 so I marketed it differently, drew up the contracts the deal required and sold it for $499,. The lender concurred in my valuation.

There was the student with top grades and approving teachers, yet the City Superintendant and his big downtown law firm thought they were going to suspend my client from school indefinitly because of one provoked remark defending himself from a bully. A letter stopped their "politically correct" harasment and the boy went back to school where his teachers had always described him as a pleasure ot have in class.

There was a disabled woman , a special needs trust beneficiary who needed someone to get involved and de-escalate tensions that woud have wasted her trust resources on litigation costs.

I've never been afraid of the difficult case. I am a natural born contrarian and independent enought to make my own judgment.  It simply has to be worth our time and effort, yours and mine and have real merit . It can't ust be about revenge or malice or greed or falsity. If it';s that, i don;t want it. But when you have been wronged and hurt by it, or are accused and at the mercy of others, I will stand by you.

 I grew up in Cranston, Rhode Island, sort of the youngest of six kids, as my twin was ten minutes older than me. I worked my way through college, (Univerity of RI '84) was proud to graduate in four years right on time, to be commissioned as in officer in the Field Artillery. I went on to law school after some military education and again, sold furntiure, clerked in a law firm and served in the National Guard as I attended and graduated in three years. I returned to RI and started clerking in a downtown firm where my writing sample from law school demonstrated training and ability in obtaining " Summary Judgment" a great way to win a case on the law when the facts are not genuinely in dispute. I put that right to work and thus got to the Rhode Island Supreme Court very early in my career. Student loans dogged my lifestyle and high taxes on a single man with no dependents left me needing to keep more of what I earned, so I became a home office professional in my own practice on January 1, 1993. 
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Solo practice led me into criminal law and I became a federal defender on the Rhode Island panel and served on same until they opened a staffed defender office, at which time I had begun serving as an assistant counsel to the Chief legal Counsel for the Providence Water Supply Board where I handled everything other than Public Utitlity rate cases. This involved me in administative enforcement actions and also lots of municipally related litigation.  I've also successfully handled product liability and wrongful death. The litigation and courtroom skills I began in an excellent second year course taught by a former Justice Department Litigator, and honed as a law clerk at a Sprinfield Law firm and mastered in a downtown Providence defense firm  have been ciritical to my clients. As part of a firm, I have representing clients such as Stop and Shop and St Joseph Hospital and all mannert of cleints who bought an insurance policy and found them selves being sued.    I pride myslef on strong persuasive legal writing skills, strong insight and analysis skills, good fact finding skills and a steady articulate resolve in any courtroom.