Attending Wake Forest University, Mike received both his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate degrees. After passing the North Carolina Bar examination, he entered active duty in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Navy in August 1985.

Over the course of a 28-year military career, he served as legal counsel to senior naval officers both ashore (Naval Air Station, Fallon, Nevada) and at sea (the nuclear aircraft carrier USS NIMITZ (CVN 68)), as Academic Director for Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island, and Legislative Counsel for the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs. He was in the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001.

In 2003, he took command of Naval Legal Service Office Southwest, San Diego, the second largest legal command in the Department of the Navy, where he was responsible for ensuring the legal readiness of service members deploying in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Following that tour, he returned to the Pentagon as Executive Assistant to the Judge Advocate General of the Navy. He was then selected to be the Special Counsel to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy’s senior Admiral and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a position he held from October 2007 to August 2009. In 2010, he was selected by a Board of Admirals to serve as the Assistant Judge Advocate General of the Navy (AJAG), the third ranking position within the JAG Corps, a global law firm of more than 1,200 military and civilian attorneys. After serving more than three years as the AJAG, he retired as a Rear Admiral (Lower Half) in July 2013.

On August 12, 2013, the DoD General Counsel appointed Quinn as the Legal Advisor and Chief of Staff for the Convening Authority for Military Commissions. In that position, he oversaw all logistical support for trial teams conducting military commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and advised the Convening Authority on all legal matters.

Military decorations awarded to Quinn over the course of his Navy career include the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Award, and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. As a civil servant, he was presented with the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for his service with the Office of Military Commissions. Quinn also earned a Master of Laws degree (LLM) in International Environmental Law from the University of Washington School of Law.