George Michak is an attorney who regularly represents auctioneers and auction
companies on wide-ranging issues, including litigation, contracts, and licensing. He was also the principal draftsperson for 2008 and 2016 revisions to the Pennsylvania Auctioneer Licensing and Trading Assistant Registration Act, 63 P.S. § 734.1 et seq. Currently, Mr. Michak is involved inan auction case before the Virginia Supreme Court, and he has represented clients in auction-related matters in Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. Additionally, Mr. Michak teaches auction law and at the Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pennsylvania and the Reppert School of Auctioneering in Auburn, Indiana. He has also taught at the Mendenhall School of Auctioneering in High Point, North Carolina.
Mr. Michak has presented to various national and state auctioneer associations including theNational Auctioneers Association, the National Association of Public Auto Auctions, the Arkansas Auctioneers Association, the Colorado Auctioneers Association, the Illinois Auctioneers Association, the Kansas Auctioneers Association, the Kentucky Auctioneers Association, MarkNet Alliance, the Auctioneers Association of Maryland, the Michigan Auctioneers Association, the New Jersey State Society of Auctioneers, the New York State Auctioneers Association, the North Carolina Auctioneers Association, the Pennsylvania Auctioneers Association, the South Carolina Auctioneers Association, the South Dakota Auctioneers Association, the Virginia Auctioneers Association, and the West Virginia Auctioneers Association.
Mr. Michak’s scholarly article, titled Alex Lyon & Son, Sales Managers & Auctioneers v. Leach: Auction Contracts, Bidder Qualifications, Offer and Acceptance, Waiver, and the Fallacy of Treating All Bidders the Same, was recently published in the West Virginia Law Review Online (124 W. Va. L. Rev. Online 19 (2021); https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr-online/vol124/iss2/1). His industry-related articles havebeen published in the Pennsylvania Auctioneers Association’s Keystone Auctioneer magazine, the Michigan Auctioneers Association’s eGavel Newsletter, and the National Auctioneers Association’s Auctioneer magazine. Mr. Michak has also been a recurring guest on the Fast Talking Podcast.
In addition to his auction law practice, Mr. Michak has a strong background in corporate and business law, commercial litigation, administrative law and professional licensing, economic development financing, oil and gas, real estate, and land use.
Mr. Michak graduated, magna cum laude, from Vermont Law School, and holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Penn State University where he was awarded a University Fellowship. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from King’s College. After law school, George served a judicial clerkship with the Honorable John A. Dooley III at the Vermont Supreme Court. George also served as Chief Counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which is the Commonwealth’s principal economic development financing agency. Currently a solo practitioner, Mr. Michak was previously a partner in a major Pittsburgh-based law firm, and, was, earlier, associated with national law firms based in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.