Michael Toth is the Civitas Institute research director and a seasoned tech general counsel with over fifteen years of corporate counsel and litigation experience. He has served as a lawyer in the Marine Corps and a senior counsel at the Texas Office of Attorney General. In 2018, Toth was appointed to the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals. He is a frequent contributor on legal, regulatory, and public policy issues in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Real Clear Politics, Civitas, Newsweek, and other publications. He has published numerous articles on legal topics as well as a book on the early United States Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. Toth graduated from Stanford University with an honors degree in history and received his law degree and an M.A. in history from the University of Virginia.