Michael Risley received his B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 2005. As an undergraduate, Mr. Risley spent seven months in northeastern Thailand doing human rights work, where he learned the value of doing the right thing, even in the face of adversity. 

In 2008, at the University of Tulsa College of Law, Mr. Risley was awarded the American Bar Association's Curtin Fellowship for his work in alternative sentencing for homeless defendants.

Unable to refuse the call of home, Mr. Risley returned to O.U. in 2009, where he did pro bono criminal defense work for low- and no-income clients at the O.U. College of Law's Criminal Defense Clinic. He was awarded his J.D in 2010 and admitted to the Oklahoma Bar in the same year. 

Mr. Risley was born in Singapore to his Norwegian mother and American father, and split his childhood between England and Oklahoma. His out-of-the-ordinary life experience has instilled in him a long standing respect for diversity and a commitment to serving others, which he puts at the forefront of his legal practice.