Michelle has been a full-time freelance writer and editor for fifteen years.
She is a Forbes contributor and has written for LegalZoom since 2004. Her writing has also appeared at Roads & Kingdoms, Ravishly, Broadly, Fodor’s, Frommer’s, and many others. She also ghostwrites legal content for law firms and attorneys. Check out some clips at her Contently portfolio.
Michelle specializes in the following topics: law/legal, business, politics, women’s issues, travel (especially Italy), media/entertainment, food, parenting, and lifestyle.
Her blog, Bleeding Espresso, was named the Best Living in Italy blog by the readers of Italy Magazine in 2016.
She has published three e-books: 52 Things to See & Do in Calabria, The Art of the Law School Personal Statement, and The Unofficial Guide to Nutella.
Michelle is also a freelance editor of full-length fiction and nonfiction manuscripts, essays, short stories, and more. She is the former managing editor for Gemelli Press, a boutique publisher that specializes in Italy-themed books.
Michelle holds a law degree from Temple University Beasley School of Law, which she attended on a Law Faculty Merit Scholarship. At Temple Law, Michelle served as Research Editor on the Temple Law Review, published an award-winning comment on professional responsibility, received awards for excellence in the study of tax law and for commitment to public service, and also taught legal concepts to public middle school students through Project LEAP.
During law school, Michelle served as a research assistant to Dr. Jacqueline Stefkovich, J.D., Ed.D, specializing in 4th amendment law in public schools, and wrote for The Legal Intelligencer.
Upon graduation, Michelle served as an appellate law clerk for two years for Justice Frank J. Montemuro, Jr. of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
Michelle also holds bachelor’s degrees, with honors, in English and history with a minor in criminology from Duke University. While at Duke, Michelle completed over 250 hours of community service through the national community service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, and worked part-time in the school’s bookstore.
For Michelle’s full resume, see her profile on LinkedIn.
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Michelle is a native of the Anthracite Coal Region in central Pennsylvania and moved to her ancestors’ medieval mountaintop village in Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot in 2003.
Her blog Bleeding Espresso was nominated for the 2009 Bloggies as Best European blog and, as noted above, was named the Best Living in Italy blog by Italy Magazine in 2016. She has maintained two other blogs about raising kids — the caprine kind at Goat Berries (now archived) and the human kind at Baby Espresso.
Michelle also co-founded and co-hosted the former Eye on Italy podcast about current news and events happening in Italy.