Michael Higginbotham is a law professor, author, and international political consultant. Higginbotham has been described as "...conscientious, diligent and slow to anger - unless he perceives an injustice" (The Baltimore Sun). The concept of fair play has figured heavily in Higginbotham's life and the force that propelled his career in law. As an expert on civil rights, human rights, and constitutional law, Higginbotham has taught and written extensively on racial equality issues for over thirty years. He is the author of the books Race Law: Cases, Commentary, and Questions and Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America. In its fourth edition, Race Law is widely used in colleges and law schools throughout the United States and several foreign countries.

His own experiences also fuel Higginbotham's passion and drive to fight injustice and inequality. While on the 2020 congressional campaign trail, he told a story about Los Angeles police stopping and illegally searching him as a black youth. Higginbotham spoke of complaining to his father and being unhappy with the response. “He would always say to me, ‘Life isn’t fair,’ ” Higginbotham said. “For me, it should be. This is America. We have an Equal Protection Clause. It should be more fair.”

That quest drove Higginbotham to work in places like the Public Justice Center, one of Maryland’s largest public interest firms. During his decade-plus stint with the center, beginning in the 1990s, the group fought cases on behalf of homeless students, detainees at the Baltimore City Detention Center on their right to medical care, and on behalf of Eastern Shore poultry workers denied extra pay for working overtime.

Higginbotham has also worked to diversify the region’s law professionals. In 2011, Higginbotham co-founded the Fannie Angelos Scholarship program, a program that identifies students at Maryland’s historically black colleges and universities in their sophomore and junior years as future attorneys. The program helps them apply to law school and throughout their legal studies and was recognized by the American Bar Association in 2017.

Higginbotham has published numerous articles and editorials in journals and newspapers throughout the United States. Appearing regularly on CNN Tonight hosted by Don Lemon, Higginbotham has frequently provided commentary to media worldwide. Additionally, he currently serves as a legal advisor to Senator Ben Cardin. 

Before joining the University of Baltimore law faculty in 1988, Higginbotham was a Law Clerk to United States Court of Appeals Judge Cecil Poole, an Associate with Davis Polk, and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania.