Michael E. Feiler

Michael Feiler was an Associate General Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) at Columbia University. He joined Columbia in 1991 and retired at the end of 2021. He was the lawyer at the OGC who worked closely with the Real Estate Group and provided legal counsel for the assemblage of 60 separately owned properties comprising 17 acres necessary for the development of the new $7 billion, 6.8 million square foot campus of Manhattanville. Feiler represented the University in a broad and diverse range of legal issues including financial aid, construction, procurement, and antitrust. He was also the chief legal advisor on clinical trials agreements between the University/NYP and pharmaceutical/ device companies. 

In December 1992, following a student takeover of Hamilton Hall, Feiler was selected to serve as the University’s lead negotiator with the students. New York City Police were stationed on Amsterdam Avenue in preparation for possible intervention, and Columbia College Dean Jack Greenberg had been prevented from leaving Hamilton Hall. Through negotiations with the students, Dean Greenberg was able to leave the building and the blockade ended. 

Feiler subsequently argued and won an appeal brought before the University Judicial Board under Columbia’s Rules of Disciplinary Conduct. The University Judicial Board upheld the suspension of four students for one term.  

Feiler is the co-author of the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) monograph entitled “Clinical Trials Contracts: Recommendations for Four Selected Provisions.” This paper is widely used at academic medical schools when entering into clinical trials agreements. He was also a speaker at AAMC conferences on clinical trials. The Columbia Spectator has published opinion pieces written by Feiler on policy and political matters.

From 1990–1991, Feiler was an Administrative Law Judge at New York City’s Environmental Control Board. For 15 years, Feiler was Assistant General Counsel at Continental Grain Company and he argued and won a case before the Iran–US Tribunal at The Hague. From 1972–1975, he was an associate at the law firm Shearman & Sterling. After his first term at law school, he took a slight detour and was a sixth-grade public school teacher for one year in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He was admitted to practice at the United States Supreme Court in 1978.

Feiler holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia University in 1972, where he was a Harlan Stone Fiske Scholar and a BA from Queens College in 1968, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Judge Samuel Colden Award. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1964 and was a member of Arista and Junior Arista.

Since his retirement, Feiler has served on EPIC’s Steering Committee and on EPIC’s Committee on Retired Officer Medical Benefits. He was also selected to serve as an arbitrator on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) panel of neutral arbitrators. In addition, he is a member of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Neighbors and Community Conversation, which meets quarterly. For the past four years, Feiler has also participated in the Columbia University Seminar on The City.

Updated September 16, 2026