Vice President of Legal Operations, PAE
Founder and CEO, Lexpat Global Services
Adam Pearlman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lexpat Global Services. He is a National Security Law expert and a proven senior leader with experience across the U.S. Departments of Justice, Defense, and State, in the White House, and with the U.S. Federal Judiciary.
Before founding Lexpat, Mr. Pearlman served as the Senior Advisor for Legal Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism. There, he counseled senior officials on matters covering the entire spectrum of programs and operations to counter terrorism and violent extremism. While participating in sensitive diplomatic engagements and helping to coordinate military operations, he also advised in the development of sanctions policy and initiatives to build legal and operational capacity in partner nations. Mr. Pearlman also managed the Bureau’s participation in federal litigation and led U.S. delegations in multilateral forums concerning criminal justice and rule of law. Separately, Mr. Pearlman supported the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) as the contracted Senior Justice and Rule of Law Advisor in Cabo Verde, Africa. There he was the chief implementer of a Foreign Assistance program that grew eight-fold during his tenure, building host nation capacity across the law enforcement, justice sector, rule of law, anti-money laundering, and corrections disciplines.
A former Associate Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Mr. Pearlman was agency counsel for complex civil and criminal national security matters in federal and military courts. He also led the Supreme Court and appellate unit of the team dedicated to litigating classified counterterrorism cases. His earlier service in the Department of Justice spanned four litigating divisions and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. His diverse experience included reviewing complex international transactions and mergers, and advising on immigration removal proceedings, human rights abuses, and terrorist financing investigations. Mr. Pearlman also served with distinction in Iraq as an early advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal’s prosecution of Saddam Hussein. He was a law clerk for The Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and during law school interned in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Mr. Pearlman is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, a member of the American Bar Association’s Advisory Committee on Law and National Security, and the Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook. Previously, he has been a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, member of the ABA’s Africa Law Initiative Council and of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) Project on Nuclear Issues, vice chairman of the ABA Section of International Law’s committees on national security, and aerospace and defense, and a liaison to the Board of Directors of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. He has published articles in the Harvard National Security Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Intelligence & National Security, The Foreign Service Journal, Lawfare, and many other outlets.
Mr. Pearlman earned his B.A., with honors, from UCLA, and his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School, where he was a member of the International Law Review. He also earned a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence degree from the National Intelligence University, where he was the inaugural recipient of the Kornblum Award for national security law and ethics. Mr. Pearlman is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist and holds certificates in international human rights law from the University of Oxford and in anti-corruption law from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is admitted to the State Bars of California and Virginia, as well as to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. He speaks and reads Portuguese at the intermediate level.
Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker is dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University – a position from which he had taken a leave of absence to serve as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012.
His is also the James Schlesinger Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia. Prior to resuming his position as dean, Ambassador Crocker was a Kissinger Senior Fellow at Yale University. His 37-year career in the Foreign Service included service as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Trustees of Whitman College. Ambassador Crocker is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service. He earned a B.A. from Whitman College.
Crocker served on the Special Committee on the Future of Shortwave Broadcasting, which on August 1, 2014, issued its report, To Be Where the Audience Is; The Future of Shortwave.
He was confirmed as member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors on August 1, 2013.
Partner, Artus Wise Partners
Salli A. Swartz, who is a dual national (France and United States) has practiced international business law in Paris since 1979. In July 2011 she created Artus Wise with a team of French attorneys specialized in litigation, arbitration, mediation, French labor and employment law, transnational business deals such as joint ventures and consortia particularly in the extractive industries and French, European and international mergers, acquisitions and corporate and commercial law. The firm prides itself on its pro bono work and Salli A. Swartz has particular expertise in advising African Governments regarding the negotiation of their extractive industry permits and agreements.
She is a Member of the Pennsylvania and Paris Bars, with specializations in the Law of International Relations and Commercial Law, is admitted to practice before the French Courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is the past Chair of the International Section of the ABA and served on the Board of Directors of the Rule of Law Institute (“ROLI”). She is a member of “Femmes Business Angels” and Arbitral Women (an association of women arbitrators), Co Chair of the International Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, a contributor to the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Advisory Board of the ABA Center for Human Rights, is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Legal Assistance Consortium and the ABA delegate to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Foreign Government Partnerships - Podcast
William K. Lietzau, Adam R. Pearlman, Ryan C. Crocker, Salli A. Swartz
International & National Security Law Podcast
Historically, protecting national security meant protecting one’s own citizens and sovereign territory from the threats...