Michael J. Levy
Sacramento, CA
Appointed by the California Access to Justice Commission
Current Term Extends through June 30, 2028
Michael J. Levy is Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Travis Credit Union, a $5 billion organization with a quarter-million members across 12 Northern California counties and a mission that includes financial education and inclusion. He sits on the Executive Leadership Team and is responsible for Legal, Compliance, Risk, Vendor Management, and Regulatory Affairs.
Levy has a diverse career, including 20 years with the State of California, 9 years in private practice, and a year as a volunteer deputy district attorney. His most recent state service was as Deputy General Counsel for Litigation for the California Department of Insurance, where he supervised the teams that handle producer licensing and discipline, enforced the Unfair Insurance Practices Act, approved property and casualty rates under Proposition 103, and enforced the Insurance Frauds Prevention Act for false claims presented to private insurers. Prior to the Department of Insurance, Levy served as Secretary/Chief Counsel to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, Chief Counsel to the California Energy Commission, General Counsel to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, and Senior Staff Counsel at the State Water Resources Control Board. Before his work with the state, Levy worked in private practice handling complex litigation, appeals, estate planning, and probate administration.
Across Levy’s career, he has amassed a diverse and successful portfolio of litigation experience in a variety of disciplines, both in the public and private sector, and in some of the most complex legal fields, including administrative, statutory, and constitutional. He has participated in or handled cases under Proposition 103, the Unfair Insurance Practices Act, the tax limitations of Propositions 13 and 26, utility-rate surcharges, the constitutional power of the Public Utilities Commission, the Legislature’s authority to select the manner of judicial review of agency actions, as well as challenges to a variety of quasi-adjudicatory and quasi-legislative agency actions. His experience includes compliance with virtually all aspects of government law, including the open meeting acts, rulemaking, adjudication, public records, public contracting, and political ethics, to name a few.
Levy is an active volunteer. His current activities include service as a member of the CFPB’s Credit Union Advisory Council, commissioner on the California Access to Justice Commission, and appellate mediator for the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, He is also co-author of The California Practice Guide to Administrative Law (The Rutter Group). He also served as Supreme Court appointee to the State Bar Trustees Nominating Committee, president of the Sacramento County Bar Association, Judge Pro Temp in several departments of the Sacramento Superior Court, member of the City of Davis Planning Commission, Natural Resources Commission, and Governance Task Force, and appellate mediator for the First District Court of Appeal.
Levy earned an LL.M. (cum laude) in natural resources and environmental law from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College (1998), a J.D. from the University of San Diego (1991), and an A.B. from U.C. Davis (1988).