Mike Reis
Senior Vice President | Fact-Finding Expert
“I am committed to unearthing and relating the key historical record that, in so many legal settings, can help attorneys, judges, juries and ultimately the public decide cases on the basis of accurate evidence.”
Work at HAI
At HAI, Mike prepares detailed expert reports and provides deposition and court testimony to clients as an expert witness and also as a 30(b)(6) corporate representative. He works with colleagues in mapping out and completing in-depth research efforts to locate federal, state, local, and organizational records that can inform his reports and testimony and make a difference in a variety of legal matters including environmental and land disputes.
A stickler for accuracy and thoroughness in research and analysis, Mike draws on more than four decades of experience in crafting successful strategies to find useful records which even agencies may not realize they created or hold. He possesses extensive expertise in environmental history, with a specialty in American industrial development, technology, and standard practice concerning waste management and allegedly toxic substances. Mike also is deeply knowledgeable about the federal government’s role in wartime mobilization and contracting, from the world wars through the recent, ongoing Middle Eastern conflicts.
Research and analytical topics Mike has focused on include:
- Industrial site activities concerning a wide array of sites and industries
- Manufacturing processes, waste disposal, and standard procedures
- Mine and extractive industry production and practices over time
- Public and technical knowledge of alleged toxic substances
- Historic watershed and coastal development
- Federal, state, local, and Native American water and land rights
- Native American reservations and government policies
- Business history and corporate succession
- U.S. government role in WWI, WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War mobilization
- U.S. government force protection policies in recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Holocaust assets and the government’s role and policies regarding them
Path to HAI
Before joining HAI in 1995, Mike worked to provide targeted historical research at a variety of knowledge-based settings, including the Office of U.S. Senator Thomas F. Eagleton, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and three research and historic preservation companies. For FERC’s Office of Hydropower Licensing, he prepared navigability histories for eighteen American waterways, which were utilized to document federal legal jurisdiction over fish ladder construction at dams and environmental cleanups, including the post-Exxon Valdez cleanup of Prince William Sound.
Mike holds a master’s degree in U.S. History from The George Washington University. He majored in history at Loyola College of Maryland, graduating with honors in 1978. Mike has served as President of the Society for History in the Federal Government (SHFG) and is currently active in the Public Education Project (PEP), with the goal of promoting better public awareness of the role of the U.S. government in American history.