Managing Director, Lexpat Global Services
Adam R. Pearlman is the Founder and Managing Director of Lexpat Global Services, an international law and consulting services firm specializing in security, defense, investigations, compliance, and training. A Special Advisor to and member of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s International and National Security Law Practice Group, he is National Security Law expert and a proven senior leader with more than fifteen years of experience across the U.S. Departments of Justice, Defense, and State, in the White House, and with the U.S. Federal Judiciary.
Most recently, he served as the Senior Advisor for Legal Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, where 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.
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, and 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, and during law school interned in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Mr. Pearlman is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Visiting Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, a member of the American Bar Association’s Africa Law Initiative Council, and a member of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Project on Nuclear Issues. He is a former National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, vice chairman of the ABA Section of International Law’s committees on national security, and aerospace and defense, and also previously served as a liaison to the Board of Directors of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. He has been co-editor of the U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook since 2011 and has published articles in the Harvard National Security Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, and Intelligence & National Security.
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 speaks and reads Portuguese at the intermediate level and holds certificates in international human rights law from the University of Oxford and in U.S. and international 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.
Partner, McGuireWoods LLP
Mr. Rowan's practice focuses on criminal and civil enforcement proceedings and internal investigations. He has substantial experience in federal law enforcement, as well as international and national security matters. He also advises corporate clients on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the ITAR, the EAR and OFAC regulations.
Mr. Rowan spent 18 years in the Department of Justice (DOJ). He most recently served as Assistant Attorney General for National Security. In that Senate-confirmed position, Mr. Rowan led the National Security Division (NSD), which was formally created by statute in 2006 to bring together all of DOJ's national security operations under a single authority. As part of his duties, he supervised the government's practice before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; the oversight of intelligence-collection activities; the coordinated nationwide counterterrorism enforcement program; the administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act; and the oversight of all espionage investigations.
He also oversaw DOJ's review of foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies through the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the NSD, where he managed DOJ's national security investigations and prosecutions. In both positions, Mr. Rowan was responsible for supervising all of DOJ's prosecutions of export violations.
As a result of his DOJ service, he has particular experience in the application of the material support statutes, the Arms Export Control Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and statutes relating to economic espionage or disclosure of classified information. As the Principal Deputy, he directed the launch and implementation of a nationwide export enforcement initiative, an interagency effort to target the illegal export of sensitive technology and weapons components. Mr. Rowan continued to lead this initiative as Assistant Attorney General.
Mr. Rowan gained extensive courtroom experience while serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for more than 10 years in Washington, D.C. During his tenure, he handled more than 60 jury trials and a number of arguments before the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Adjunct Faculty, Johns Hopkins University
Mark S. Zaid, Esq. is a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who specializes in innovatively handling simple and complex administrative and litigation matters relating to national security, intelligence, international law, foreign sovereign and diplomatic immunity, defamation (plaintiff) and the Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts (FOI/PA). He teaches the D.C. Bar Continuing Legal Education classes on “The Basics of Filing and Litigating Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Requests” (since 2003), “Defending Security Clearances” (since 2006), and “Handling Whistleblower Cases: More than the Basics" (since 2016). Mr. Zaid was named as a Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer in 2009 (profiled), 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, as well as a “Best Lawyer” by Washingtonian Magazine in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015 for his national security work. As the National Law Journal once wrote, “if Agent Mulder ever needed a lawyer, Zaid would be his man.”
Mr. Zaid is also the Executive Director and founder of the James Madison Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization, with the primary purpose of educating the public on issues relating to intelligence gathering and operations, secrecy policies, national security and government wrongdoing. “Curiously for this town,” wrote the American Bar Association Journal, “Zaid is an equal opportunity thorn out to pierce the sides of suit jackets bearing both elephants and donkeys on the lapels.”
A 1992 graduate of Albany Law School of Union University in New York, where he served as an Associate Editor of the Albany Law Review and now sits as a member of its Board of Trustees, he completed his undergraduate education (cum laude) in 1989 at the University of Rochester, New York with honors in Political Science and high honors in History. Mr. Zaid is a member of the Bars of New York State, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland and numerous federal courts.
Adjunct Professor, Belmont Abbey College
Associate Dean for Faculty; Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law, The Ohio State University Mortiz College of Law
Professor Daniel Tokaji is an authority on the law of elections and democracy. He teaches courses on Election Law, Civil Rights, Civil Procedure, Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, Legislation and Regulation, and the U.S. Legal System. His scholarship addresses questions of voting rights, racial justice, free speech, and the role of the courts in American democracy.
Professor Tokaji is the author of Election Law in a Nutshell (2d ed. 2016), and co-author of Election Law: Cases and Materials (6th ed. 2017) and The New Soft Money (2014). He has written numerous articles and book chapters on a wide variety of election and voting issues, including voting rights, voter ID, voter registration, redistricting, campaign finance regulation. Recent articles include “Gerrymandering and Association,” 59 William & Mary Law Review 2159 (2018), and “Denying Systemic Equality: The Last Words of the Kennedy Court,” 13 Harvard Law & Policy Review 539 (2019). His current research focuses on the challenges facing democracies around the globe, including the free speech issues surrounding digital disinformation and the need for trustworthy electoral institutions.
Media outlets frequently seek Professor Tokaji’s expertise on election and voting issues. He has been quoted in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Columbus Dispatch, USA TODAY, and appeared on TODAY, FOX News, NBC News, and National Public Radio and many other media outlets.
A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale Law School, Professor Tokaji clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before arriving at Ohio State, he was a staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Chair of California Common Cause.
Professor Tokaji has litigated many civil rights, civil liberties, and election law cases. He was lead counsel in a case that struck down an Ohio law requiring naturalized citizens to produce a certificate of naturalization when challenged at the polls. He also served as counsel in litigation challenging the state’s voting purges. He was also an attorney for plaintiffs in cases that kept open the window for simultaneous registration and early voting in Ohio’s 2008 general election, and that challenged punch-card voting systems in Ohio and California after the 2000 election.
National Security Leaks
International & National Security Law Practice Group Teleforum
TeleforumWikileaks and the First Amendment