Michael James Davis was born on August 31, 1942, in Clay Center, Clay County, Kansas, the son of Maynard James (1908-1966) and Florence Matilda (Steffen) Davis (1909-1994). After graduating from Kansas State University with a bachelors in government in 1964, Michael Davis went to the University of Michigan Law School to earn his JD in 1967, during which time he was an editor with the Michigan Law Review.

Davis was an associate with Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin, and Kahn briefly in 1976 before serving as the Reginald Heber Smith Fellow with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Kansas City from 1967-1968. From 1968-1969 he was Associate Director in Planning at Research at the Legal Services Program in the Office of Economic Opportunity (O.E.O.). From 1969-1971 he was a legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) and briefly worked for Stokes' brother Carl Stokes' mayoral campaign in Cleveland, Ohio.

Davis joined the University of Kansas School of Law faculty in 1971, starting as an associate professor and then gaining full professorship in 1974. He was KU's General Counsel from 1974-1980 and dean of the Law School from 1980-1989, later serving as interim dean in 2005-2006. He held visiting professorships at several institutions and worked with several study abroad programs, including in France, Austria, England, Holland, Egypt, Hungary, and Israel.

Davis received awards for his teaching before his retirement in 2015, including the Immel Award for Teaching Excellence in 1991 and being named the Centennial Teaching Professor of Law in 1997.

Michael J. Davis married Jacqueline "Jackie" Annette Zurat (1946 - ), with whom he has two children, Adam and Ashley. They later divorced and Davis married Faye Manker in 2003.

[Information retrieved from University Archives morgue files, faculty website, and findagrave.com.]