In January 2010, the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs appointed Michael as facilitator charged with assisting the Council and staff of the Town of South Bruce Peninsula to address certain ongoing relational issues. At the end of the sessions, the Mayor and Council issued a press release thanking Michael "for his professionalism in dealing with concerns and providing the Council with the necessary tools to move forward for the betterment of the ratepayers of the Town".

            On March 12, 2010 Michael was an invited speaker at the SSHRC Indigenous Peoples and Governance workshop held in Ottawa. His paper, on the "Challenges of Negotiating Indigenous Governance" will be published in the Fall.

            In 2009, Michael presented three scholarly papers in Europe on the subject of dispute resolution in Europe. In February he addressed the University of Edinburgh on the rule of law implications of DR and the resolution of public disputes. In June and October  he made presentations on the issue of ADR processes and indigenous rights at conferences of the Global Ecological Integrity Group (in Florence) and the International Bar Association (in Madrid). On March 31st, 2009 Michael gave a further paper to the New Zealand Centre for Public Law, in Wellington, analyzing the ADR processes of Canada and New Zealand in relation to First Nation and Maori treaty rights.

Governmental recognition of Michael's expertise in dispute resolution includes his appointment by the federal government in April 2006 as the Minister's Fact-finder in relation to the ongoing Six Nations protest near Caledonia, Ontario. Michael's report, " The Situation at Caledonia: the Nature of the Grievances, the Jurisdictional Implications and Options for Addressing the Dispute Through Dialogue” was tabled with the Speaker of the House of Commons on June 21, 2006. One year earlier, the Ipperwash Inquiry, chaired by Justice Sydney Linden, commissioned Michael to write the Inquiry's background paper on government policies for addressing and resolving land claims in Ontario. Chapter 4 of the Inquiry's final report, issued in May 2007, quotes Michael's analysis 16 times.

Michael has recently received three important grants to engage in research analysis focussed on dispute resolution theory. In 2008-9 he received  the inaugural MacCormick Research Fellowship from the University of Edinburgh, as well as a University of Western Ontario International Travel Award to allow him to do ADR research in the U.K. and New Zealand, respectively. He is also currently the recipient of a five year SSHRC grant on the topic, “The Implications of Choosing Interest-based Negotiation Strategies to Establish Aboriginal Governance.”

Last year saw two more publications on the topic of ADR and indigenous issues: "The Use of ADR Processes to Address Indigenous Rights Disputes: A Comparative Analysis of Australia, Canada and New Zealand” in S. Imai, K. McNeil and B. Richardson, eds., Indigenous Peoples and the Law: Comparative and Critical Perspectives (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009); and “Les négoçiations sur la gouvernance autochtone au Canada: pouvoir, culture et imagination”, in Téléscope (Special Issue on Aboriginal Governance)