Michael Brave serves as the National Litigation Counsel for TASER International, Inc. (as well as a certified Master TASER® Instructor and Legal Advisor to the TASER Training Board). Mr. Brave is also the President of LAAW International, Inc., and the former President of the International Force Institute, Inc. His experience includes involvement in a wide-range of comprehensive law enforcement and private security risk/liability and litigation management services including: training programs, policy development and review, liability/risk assessments, training appraisals, department audits, and post critical incident analysis. He has served as a litigation consultant and an expert witness in state and federal civil rights issues, including: sudden unforeseeable and unexpected death; positional asphyxia; restraint; handcuffing; law enforcement policy, training, supervision, discipline, retention, and termination; use of force (including deadly force, personal weapons, threat analysis, batons, pepper spray, electronic restraint, physical restraint, neck restraint, and defensive tactics); vehicle operations (including pursuits, vehicle related deadly force, road blocks, emergency operations, occupant restraint, parking); canines; jail issues (including suicides); failure to protect; failure to provide medical care, and failure to act.
Mr. Brave is formerly the Chief of the Intelligence and Investigative Operations Unit, Office of Enforcement Operations (OEO), United States Department of Justice (DOJ), in Washington, D.C. In that position, he oversaw several highly sensitive law enforcement programs. Mr. Brave also held the concurrent position of Deputy Director for International Operations of the Federal Witness Security Program where he coordinated the foreign aspects of the Program, including a portion of Plan Colombia, for the DOJ official who oversaw the Program. Mr. Brave's other DOJ duties included: OEO Use-of-Force and Firearms Training Officer, Criminal Division Security Officer, and Division Watch Officer. Mr. Brave was also a Special Deputy United States Marshall and his National Security Information security clearance was above Top Secret.
As a certified, and nationally recognized, instructor in several facets of deadly force, many non-lethal, and less-than-lethal programs, several law enforcement vehicle operation programs, and others, Mr. Brave has presented hundreds of law enforcement legal, risk, liability, and operational training and management programs across the country, and internationally (including the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Canada). Mr. Brave has also served as the lead attorney for the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration for their Occupant Restraint Risk Management Program. Since 1983 Mr. Brave has been a certified Wisconsin law enforcement officer and a Wisconsin certified law enforcement trainer in several (over twenty) subject areas. Additionally, he has served as a (part-time) police legal advisor, trainer, field training officer, and patrol captain.
Mr. Brave s a Certified Litigation Specialist in Police Litigation, Corrections Litigation, and Public Employment Litigation; and is also a Certified Law Enforcement Trainer. He s a faculty member for the Americans for Effective Law Enforcement, Law Enforcement Legal Center. He is the Legal Advisor and an Ex-Officio Advisory Board member of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association; a former Board Member of the Scientific Combatives Group International; and a Board Member of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths. Mr. Brave has served on the National Advisory Boards of the Police Law Institute, the Jail Law Institute, and Defense Training International, Inc. He is a former member of the Executive Board of American Society for Law Enforcement Training (ASLET). He also served as an Executive Committee Member of the Legal Officers' Section of the IACP and is a former consultant to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Manual. Mr. Brave has published articles in periodicals including the Police Chief, American City & County, Prosecutor, Police & Security News, Public Risk, ASLET Journal, Casino Enterprise Management, the International Use of Force Journal, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Manual, and others; and has presented several programs on the Law Enforcement Television Network.
Mr. Brave's prior experience includes being an attorney for a St. Paul (MN) law firm with special emphasis on municipal and liability defense, and being the personnel and special projects director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, a leading provider of attorney litigation education. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Hamline University School of Law, a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a Master's Degree in Management Technology from the University of Wisconsin - Stout. He has been certified as a Certified Protection Specialist and a Certified Security Trainer. He is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court; the 7th, 8th, and D.C. Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal; Wisconsin and Minnesota State Courts; and others.