Michael West is a Senior Vice President and the Senior Attorney at the New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc.  He has served as a staff attorney with NYCON since 2002 and presently oversees NYCON’s Legal Services Group.  Although he has represented clients in all areas of criminal and civil litigation, Mr. West’s practice has long been devoted exclusively to addressing issues concerning tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations, particularly those matters implicating corporate, tax, contract, real property and employment law.  He is a recognized and respected advocate, not only for his own clients, but for the nonprofit community as a whole.

Mr. West provides a wide variety of legal services to charitable organizations, educational institutions and religious orders.  Long-term, diversified professional engagements facilitated by NYCON have enabled him to develop expertise in numerous specialized areas of law unique to nonprofits—from corporate restructuring to property tax-exemption, and worker classification to restricted fund expenditures. Mike is, perhaps, most highly regarded for the innovation, dedication, effort and empathy that he exhibits in defense of nonprofits struggling to address seemingly insurmountable financial, regulatory or public relations predicaments among other forms of organizational crisis.  He also regularly conducts training sessions for nonprofit boards of directors and executive staff, Continuing Legal Education classes for attorneys and discussions and seminars for the general public concerning charitable organizations, in addition, to offering testimony before legislative and regulatory authorities.

Michael West is admitted to the practice of law in the State of New York and is a graduate of Rutgers University and Albany Law School where he was recognized as a New York Chief Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo scholar and served as an Executive Editor with the Albany Law Review.