Michael W. Bien

Constitutional and civil rights law

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Bien and his co-counsel that the state of California is responsible for ensuring that its disabled prisoners are accommodated even when they are housed in county lockups. Bien has tangled with the state over prison conditions for years. One of his highest-profile cases, in which he represented prisoners in a successful effort to prove that overcrowding was causing unconstitutional conditions in the delivery of mental and medical health care, is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Bien also does work on voting rights cases and handles commercial litigation.