Michael Lincoln

Practice Areas

Mike is the vice chair of Cooley and works with the firm’s senior leadership team on matters of client relations, strategic planning, lateral growth and communications. His practice focuses on emerging companies, venture capital and M&A. In 1999, Mike co-founded Cooley’s first East Coast office in Reston, Virginia.

For nearly three decades, Mike has been an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, his alma mater, where he teaches a course on emerging growth companies and venture capital.

For the last 20 years, Chambers USA has named him to its list of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

In 2024, Washingtonian magazine named Mike a top dealmaker on its Tech Titans list for the 12th consecutive year. Since 2015, the Washington Business Journal has also included him on its Power 100 list, recognizing the region’s most powerful business leaders. Mike has been named one of The Best Lawyers in America since 2005 and, for more than a decade, as Venture Capital Lawyer of the Year.

In 2006, the Legal Times named Mike the top dealmaker in the Washington, DC, area, and in 2007, Washingtonian named him one of the area’s Top 150 Most Powerful People. From 2004 to 2008, the Washington Business Journal named Mike the area’s top corporate finance attorney. In 2010, the Northern Virginia Technology Council presented him with its Navigator Award, which recognizes contributions to coaching entrepreneurs and emerging companies.

Mike serves on the boards of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation and the tech startup network Mindshare and on the advisory council of the Venture Capital Initiative at Darden. He is a member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and co-manager of his class for the University of Virginia School of Law. Mike is a past co-chair of the Medical Care for Children Partnership Foundation and previously served on the boards of the Tewaaraton Foundation, the Washington, DC, region of the University of Virginia College Foundation, the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association and the Shenandoah National Park Trust. He also served on the alumni council of the University of Virginia School of Law Foundation, the building committee of Vienna Presbyterian Church, and the Virginia Charitable Gaming Commission. Mike also helped form the founders of the Iranian American Technology Council.

Prior to joining Cooley, Mike was a partner with Hunton & Williams in its Tysons Corner office and an associate with Latham & Watkins in its Washington, DC, office. Before attending law school, he served for three years as legislative assistant to Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson.

Mike is a member of the Virginia State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar. He is not admitted to practice in New York.