About Michael Braun
Michael Braun is a Nashville trial attorney serving clients primarily in the southeast United States. He has practiced since 1995 and has run his own Nashville office since 1998.
Recognition
In 2025, the Autism Law Summit named Michael its Lawyer of the Year, citing “exceptional advocacy on behalf of individuals with autism.” He is a member of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) and a regular continuing-legal-education presenter on IDEA, autism law, and IEP meetings.
Practice
Michael represents both families and individuals and providers and businesses, in matters that reach from a single IEP meeting to a contested regulatory hearing to a jury trial. He handles administrative law, Certificate of Need, home health regulatory matters, real estate litigation, adult conservatorship, special education, and autism advocacy and insurance. Whatever the caption, the questions are the ones he has spent his career answering: what does the law actually require, and can the other side meet it.
Representative matters
Michael keeps the full record of named cases here, in one place. A selection:
- Sophie G. v. Wilson County Schools, 742 F. App’x 73 (6th Cir. 2018) — a Section 504 disability-discrimination appeal for an elementary student with autism denied access to an after-school program, decided favorably. Read the case.
- Hometown Home Health Care of Shelby County, LLC v. State Health Planning & Development Agency, 190 So. 3d 44 (Ala. Civ. App. 2015) — Michael represented Partners Healthcare Group, LLC, winning a contested Certificate of Need for a new Birmingham-area home-health agency over competing applicants and objectors; the grant was affirmed on appeal. Read the case.
- Alabama HB 284 / Act 2017-337 — lead lobbyist for the Alabama autism-insurance mandate, work credited by Autism Speaks. Read the story.
- A $1.1 million jury verdict for an injured contractor (Dimmit County, Texas, 2021).
- McLendon v. Hepburn, 876 So. 2d 479 (Ala. Civ. App. 2003) — a win.
- A construction arbitration for a subcontractor against a military prime contractor, in which all claims were paid.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Background
Michael began in regulatory law from the inside. From 1995 to 1997 he served as an Agency Attorney for the Alabama Certificate of Need Board, working on certificate-of-need, administrative, and regulatory matters, agency rulemaking, and contested cases. That work taught him how Certificate of Need decisions are made from within — the standards applied, the record that carries weight, and how a contested case is run.
He then handled complex litigation and mass torts at Burr & Forman LLP in Birmingham before opening his solo Nashville practice in 1998. He has tried cases in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Florida, and Hawaii, and is admitted in three federal circuits and ten U.S. district courts.
Education and bar admissions
- St. Thomas University College of Law, J.D., 1995
- Carson-Newman University, B.A., 1991
- State bars: Tennessee (BPR No. 032669), Georgia, and Alabama
- U.S. Courts of Appeals: Sixth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, where he has litigated special education and civil-rights appeals at the federal level
- U.S. District Courts: the Western, Middle, and Eastern Districts of Tennessee; the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Georgia; the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Alabama; and the Northern District of Florida
- Member, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), the Nashville Bar Association, and the Federal Bar Association