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Michael J.
Gardiner
a Rhode Island Republican
U.S. CONGRESS
Worker, Enlisted Soldier, Student, Officer, Lawyer, Entrepreneur.
Michael J. Gardiner has practiced law for twenty years in Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Cranston High School East, '80, the University of Rhode Island '84, and the Western New College School of Law, obtaining his Juris Doctorate in 1989. After clerkship and passing the bar on is first attempt, Mike Gardiner began his practice with the law firm of Gunning LaFazia & Gnys in downtown Providence. With five years combined clerkship and practice under his belt, Mike ventured out on his own, starting with some business cards, a rented room, a spinet desk and a small computer and has been self supporting ever since. Mike even paid for all of his own College and law school.
Mike Gardiner also served in the RI Army National Guard from 1981 through 1990 and then transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve as a Captain (FA). Mike's first job was at the age of 15. He worked for some of Rhode Island's most successful dine-in restaurants, on the docks of Galilee in the Point Judith Fisherman's Cooperative and even in the holds of the fishing fleet, "lumping" out squid, flounder, butterfish and a not so pleaseant bait fish, skates. He also worked as an assistant night manager at the Student Union at University of Rhode Island. During law school he not only served in the Army National Guard, but he also sold furniture and clerked in a law firm to support himself while in school. Mike Gardiner knows hard work, and the value of education.
Mike Gardiner is one of six children of Elmer and Margaret Gardiner of Warwick. He has five siblings, four of whom are teachers, and one is a journalist. Mike married Louanne DiBella in 2001 and is the father of Benjamin M. Gardiner. Mike and Louanne are divorced, which surprises many, because they still act as a family. Neither would recommend divorce to anyone. But when it happens, both Mike and Louanne would tell you, you are still your children's' family and that must never change, and therein lies great joy to be shared, and they strive to set that example in this imperfect world.
As an attorney at law with his own practice, Mike has represented parties in State and Federal Court. Mike has tried cases before juries in civil and criminal cases and argued before the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Some of Mike Cases are reported in the law volumes: Liberty Mutual v. Harbor Insurance, DiQuinzio v. Panciera Lease Co, Root v. Providence Water Supply Board, and there are others.
The House of Representatives is a two- year term. By the end of Mike's second year in the practice of law, Mike had already successfully briefed and argued two cases before the RI Supreme Court. Despite several terms in Congress, Jim Langevin is known lately for warning about the cyber threat. But warning about the Cyber threat and being a key congressman to whom other congressmen look to lead are two different things. Mike will use his skills as lawyer to be a law maker. He will reform EMTALA to lessen the burden of uncompensated care on our community hospitals, and work to make sure other resources are provided at lower costs to educate those who over use ER's where more information and alternative pathways to healthcare would prevent it. Most of all Mike will work with the professional to get it right.
THE AMERICAN DREAM,
THE AMERICAN WAY ..
