Lecturer
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1977
B.A., University of Virginia, 1970
University of Virginia alumnus Michael Ross teaches the short course "Ethics, Integrity, and Avoiding 'Club Fed'" at the Law School. He also teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is a member of the advisory board of Berkeley’s Center for Law, Business, and the Economy. Since 2001, he has served on panels on numerous topics, such as mergers and acquisitions, directors and officers liability insurance, corporate ethics, legal risk management, special investigations and antitrust for Stanford Law School's Directors' College. He is a member of the advisory board of UVA's Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life. Ross is also a member of the Affiliated Transnational Faculty of Peking University’s School of Transnational Law, and an adjunct consultant with Altman Weil, Inc. He has addressed law firms about the relationship between outside counsel and client, and corporate law departments about managing outside counsel. He was a regular columnist for “GC California,” an American Law Media publication. His textbook, Ethics, Integrity, and Avoiding "Club Fed," published by LexisNexis in 2011.
Ross was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Safeway Inc. Beginning in 1993, he was responsible for Safeway’s legal affairs in the United States and Canada, as well as security, risk management and environmental health and safety. Before he retired as an executive officer in May 2000, Ross successfully managed Safeway’s acquisitions of The Vons Companies, Inc. (1997), Dominick’s Supermarkets, Inc. (1998), Carr-Gottstein Foods, Co. (1999) and Randall’s Food Markets, Inc. (1999).
After his retirement as an executive officer, Ross served as senior advisor to Safeway, managing its proposed acquisitions and divestitures, including the successful acquisition of Genuardi’s Family Markets, Inc. in 2001. Prior to joining Safeway, Ross was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in corporate mergers and acquisitions. He served on the recruiting committee and as chairman of the finance committee.
Ross graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law l in 1977 and received his bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Virginia in 1970. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1970 to 1974, completing the last two years of service as a lieutenant and the operations officer of the U.S.S. Truckee.
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