Mike Powers assists clients, including postsecondary institutions, investors and education service providers, in navigating complex regulatory and compliance issues under Title IV of the Higher Education Act and Department regulations, institutional accreditor standards and state licensing agency laws and regulations. Mike also supports the firm’s education policy initiatives, including analysis of and advocacy on federal rulemaking and legislative proposals.

Prior to joining Duane Morris, he served as a case manager for the Multi-Region and Foreign Schools Participation Division of the U.S. Education Department’s Federal Student Aid’s School Eligibility and Oversight Service Group. In that role, he was responsible for oversight of publicly traded companies owning participating schools and large school groups, as well as foreign schools that participate in Title IV programs. Additionally, he led the Department’s national change of ownership working group across all divisions and provided in-depth subject matter knowledge of regulations, policy, procedures and Department systems. Prior to that, he worked for the Chicago/Denver School Participation Division, which is one of the two school participation sections remaining after the Department’s recent restructuring and reduction in force.

Mike is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago (M.S., accounting) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (B.S., civil engineering).