Michael B. Arkin

Michael Arkin is a former Independent State Hearing Officer who heard and determined contested legal cases between school districts and parents as part of the Special Education Hearing Office in Sacramento, California. As an ISHO, his written Decisions were pubished in national legal journals.

He presently serves on the Mediation Panel of the San Diego Superior Court and is available to mediate matters referred to him in San Diego County on demand. In addition, he assists Pegasus Legal Services for Children with its guardianship and abuse and neglect matters in Albuquerque New Mexico. If that were not enough, he is completing a new novel a the present time, tentatively titled, "Judicial Indiscretion."

A former United States Department of Justice trial attorney in Washington, D.C., he engaged in the practice of law for 44 years before relocating to New Mexico to reflect and write. His law practice was balanced primarily among providing legal services as Chief Trial Counsel to Calaveras County (California) Child Protective Services, additionally to the California Superior Court as special counsel for children in high conflict child custody cases, and as counsel for battered women referred by the Women's Crisis Center in the California County in which he resided.

Reared in Arlington, Virginia and a graduate of Wakefield High School, he received undergraduate degrees from The George Washington University and The University of Oklahoma with a major in psychology, and minors in sociology, philosophy and English. A man of varied interests, while at GWU he volunteered at the campaign headquarters of then US Senator Jack Kennedy in 1960. Returning to Oklahoma, he received his law degree from the University of Oklahoma where he served as Managing Editor and Articles and Book Review Editor of the Oklahoma Law Review. While living in Oklahoma, he helped former United States Senator,Fred Harris on the campaign trail. He has been an active supporter of political candidates throughout his adult lifetime, focusing primarily on the qualifications of the candidate rather than party affiliation. In 1994 he was County Chariman of the re-election campaign for Governor Pete Wilson in California. In addition, he is a classic car restorer, has bred and trained Beagle dogs for competition in Field Trials throughout the Southwest, and studies Native American history and art.

He is the author of "From the Depth of the Mines Comes the Law," a regional history book, "Out of Balance," a socially relevant mystery, and he is now completing his second novel, tenatively titled, "Judicial Discretion."