Michael "Mike" Semanchik is Managing Attorney at the California Innocence Project (CIP). As part of his work with CIP, he has been involved in many cases involving the exoneration of previously-convicted prisoners, working closely with the organization's director, Justin Brooks, and also preparing petitions for many of CIP's clients. After working at CIP while still a law student at California Western School of Law, following graduation in 2010 he became an investigator and then a staff attorney there.He was involved in the high-profile case of star linebacker Brian Banks, and was instrumental in Banks' exoneration in 2012 from a wrongful 2002 conviction as a sex offender, which had destroyed Banks' promising career as a high-school athlete. As a result of his work on this case, the (now defunct) California Lawyer Magazine named Semanchik Attorney of the Year in 2013.In the Spring of 2013, Semanchik and two other CIP attorneys walked over 700 miles from San Diego to Sacramento in an event called The Innocence March, a public protest against the incarceration of twelve California inmates they considered innocent, which also served to bring awareness to the problem of wrongly convicted prisoners. They also presented twelve petitions to California Governor Jerry Brown, demanding clemency for the twelve.Semanchik has spoken at a number of conferences relating to investigations and his work with the California Innocence Project. He has appeared in the media relating to this work over three dozen times. He has also authored essays relating to the criminal justice system, advocating for reform. In 2014, the San Diego Daily Transcript recognized Semanchik in its list of "Top Attorneys."