Michael E. Carter is the Executive Director of the Federal Community Defender Office of the Eastern District of Michigan (FCDO). FCDO provides indigent defense for individuals charged with violating federal criminal law, both felony and misdemeanor offenses.

Michael earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan in 2002, and his law degree from Wayne State University in 2007. After graduating from law school, Michael served as an associate attorney for the Law Offices of John A. Shea in Ann Arbor, Michigan. While there, he represented criminal defendants charged in state and federal court. Wanting to devote his practice to representing indigent clients, Michael left private practice in 2011 to join the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia. Michael spent four years at that office representing adult and juvenile clients charged with felonies in D.C. Superior Court. In January 2016, Michael returned to Michigan to serve as a Deputy Defender with the Federal Defender Office of the Eastern District of Michigan (FDO, the forerunner of the FCDO). He worked at the FDO until August 2019 when he became a supervising attorney with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Detroit representing adult clients in felony cases prosecuted in the Circuit Court of Wayne County while also helping to administer the Wayne County Criminal Advocacy Program. Michael returned to FCDO as the Executive Director in December 2020.

Michael is licensed to practice in both Michigan and Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the boards of the ACLU of Michigan Board of Directors, the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan (CDAM), the Detroit Justice Center, the National Association of Federal Defenders, and the Federal Bar Association Eastern District of Michigan. Michael also serves on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College and is a fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers as well as the Michigan State Bar Foundation.