Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington University Law School
Theodore C. (Ted) Hirt was an attorney in the Department of Justice's Civil Division from August 1979 to March 2016. He was in its Federal Programs Branch from 1979 to 2008 (trial attorney, senior trial counsel, assistant director), and then in its Office of Immigration Litigation from 2008 to 2016 (trial attorney and senior litigation counsel). Among his responsibilities (September 2001 to March 2016) was being an advisor to the Assistant Attorneys General for the Civil Division, who serve ex officio on the Civil Rules Advisory Committee. Mr. Hirt’s areas of specialization include First Amendment issues, internet and telecommunications law, and electronic discovery. From 1976 to 1979, he was an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampelman. From 1975 to 1976 he was an attorney in the Prehearing Division of the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Raj M. Shah is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Arceo.ai, a start-up powering new approaches to cybersecurity through insurance and risk management. A seasoned entrepreneur and national security leader, Shah has transitioned often between the public and private sectors. Previously the Managing Partner of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), he reported directly to the Secretary of Defense. Shah led DIUx in its efforts to strengthen our Armed Forces through contractual and cultural bridges between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon.
Previously, Shah was senior director of strategy at Palo Alto Networks, which acquired Morta Security, where he was Co-founder and CEO. He began his business career as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. Shah serves as a reserve F-16 pilot in the Air National Guard and has completed multiple combat tours. He holds an AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and an MBA from The Wharton School. Shah is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Chief Counsel, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Daniel Sutherland is the Chief Counsel for CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA is responsible for cybersecurity, telecommunications, risk management and infrastructure resilience, operating with a budget over $1 billion and a workforce of approximately 2,000. He leads an office of attorneys who negotiate complex technology agreements, provide daily operational support to a cybersecurity operations center, advocate the agency’s positions in litigation, draft and negotiate legislation, and respond to audits and investigations.
Mr. Sutherland’s position builds on a career focused on issues at the intersection of civil liberties and national security. In 2003, Mr. Sutherland was appointed by President Bush to serve as the first Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security. He provided advice to Secretaries Ridge and Chertoff on intelligence policy, disability law and policy, emergency preparedness and response, and immigration law. His speech on the need for the government to engage with American Arab and Muslim communities appeared in the publication Vital Speeches of the Day. Mr. Sutherland has also served in the Senior National Intelligence Service at the National Counterterrorism Center where he coordinated the government’s efforts to prevent violent extremism; Mr. Sutherland was referred to by Wired as “one of the government’s point people on stemming the appeal of al-Qaida.” Mr. Sutherland is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/G).
Mr. Sutherland started his federal career as a civil rights attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, where for 14 years he litigated cases in courts across the country. Mr. Sutherland is a graduate of the University of Louisville and University of Virginia School of Law.
Managing Director, SCF Partners
Daniel G. West invests in energy services, equipment, and technology companies at SCF Partners in Houston, Texas. He provides equity capital and strategic growth assistance to entrepreneurs and leaders of both start-up ventures and established, growing businesses.
Prior to joining the private sector, Mr. West served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a platoon commander with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Mesa Verde, he led the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel force in support of the NATO aerial campaign over Libya. He then served as executive officer of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines as it mentored Afghan forces to assume lead security responsibility and executed counter-narcotics missions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He also served as a clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. West holds degrees in law, business administration, and economics from Harvard University, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and taught undergraduate courses in economics and government. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International & National Security Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Shareholder, Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Shreck
With more than 20 years of experience both as a first-chair litigator and in public service, Greg Brower’s practice focuses on civil and criminal litigation, as well as regulatory and enforcement actions, corporate investigations, cybersecurity matters and federal and state government relations.
Most recently, Greg served as the assistant director for the Office of Congressional Affairs at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), serving as the FBI’s chief liaison to Congress on a wide range of critical oversight and investigative matters. He previously served as the FBI’s Deputy General Counsel, managing a diverse portfolio of legal matters, including litigation, privacy, procurement, compliance and ethics. During his time as a senior FBI executive, spanning two administrations, he worked closely with high-ranking officials in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. intelligence community and with key leaders on Capitol Hill. Greg is a regular commentator and contributor on national security, legal and cybersecurity issues, regularly appearing on CNN and MSNBC, and he is the featured contributor on white collar crime and corporate compliance for the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Pulse blog.
Greg has a long history of public service. At the federal level, he previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, and as both General Counsel and Inspector General at the U.S. Government Publishing Office. Greg also served at DOJ as Legislative Counsel in the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys. At the state level, he has served in a variety of public policy roles, including five terms in the Nevada Legislature, where he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has also served on the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee, the Nevada Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice, the Nevada Sentencing Commission and the Nevada Juvenile Justice Commission.
Throughout his career, Greg has served the Nevada legal community as an adjunct professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he has taught courses in national security law and trial advocacy. Before attending law school, Greg served in the U.S. Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer.
Senior Research Fellow in Anglo-American Relations, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, The Heritage Foundation
Theodore "Ted" R. Bromund studies and writes on Anglo-American relations, U.S. and British relations with Europe and the European Union, America’s leadership role in the world, and international organizations and treaties as senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
Bromund, who joined Heritage in 2008, previously served nine years as associate director of International Security Studies at Yale University, a center dedicated to the study and teaching of diplomatic history and grand strategy. He was a lecturer in history beginning in 1999, and in international affairs for the master of arts program beginning in 2004.
A columnist for Newsday, Forbes, and Great Britain’s Yorkshire Post, Bromund also writes regularly for National Review, The Weekly Standard, and FoxNews.com, and, in Britain, CapX. He has been interviewed or cited by BBC News, CBS News, Fox News Channel, CNN, Fox Business, Politifact, Radio Free Europe, The Christian Science Monitor, Time, and Financial Times, among others.
Besides contributing articles to scholarly journals, Bromund is the author of a chapter on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the book The Blair Legacy: Politics, Policy, Governance, and Foreign Affairs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
In 2013, Bromund was recognized by the Second Amendment Foundation as its Scholar of the Year for his analysis of the Arms Trade Treaty.
Bromund received his doctorate in history in 1999 from Yale. His thesis on Britain’s first application to the European Economic Community won the Samuel H. Beer Dissertation Prize from the American Political Science Association’s British Politics Group. In 2016, he received Heritage’s Joseph Shattan Award in recognition of the quality of his writing.
He is an adjunct professor of strategic studies in the Strategic Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where he teaches courses on grand strategy. He also holds two master’s degrees in history from Yale as well as a bachelor of arts degree from Iowa’s Grinnell College.
A native of Wooster, Ohio, he currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Partner, Baker & McKenzie LLP
Thomas Firestone represents clients in international white collar criminal investigations and compliance matters, including anti-corruption and US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), internal investigations and transactional due diligence. He is a member of the Firm's Global Compliance & Investigations Steering Committee. Prior to joining the Firm, Thomas spent 14 years at the US Department of Justice. He worked as an Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York where he prosecuted transnational organized crime cases. He also worked as Resident Legal Adviser and Acting Chief of the Law Enforcement Section at the US Embassy in Moscow. In the latter capacity, he facilitated US-Russian law enforcement cooperation, assisted the Russian government in drafting new criminal legislation, advised the US government on policy issues related to criminal justice in Russia and twice won the US State Department Superior Honor Award.
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.
Raj M. Shah is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Arceo.ai, a start-up powering new approaches to cybersecurity through insurance and risk management. A seasoned entrepreneur and national security leader, Shah has transitioned often between the public and private sectors. Previously the Managing Partner of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), he reported directly to the Secretary of Defense. Shah led DIUx in its efforts to strengthen our Armed Forces through contractual and cultural bridges between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon.
Previously, Shah was senior director of strategy at Palo Alto Networks, which acquired Morta Security, where he was Co-founder and CEO. He began his business career as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. Shah serves as a reserve F-16 pilot in the Air National Guard and has completed multiple combat tours. He holds an AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and an MBA from The Wharton School. Shah is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Chief Counsel, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Daniel Sutherland is the Chief Counsel for CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA is responsible for cybersecurity, telecommunications, risk management and infrastructure resilience, operating with a budget over $1 billion and a workforce of approximately 2,000. He leads an office of attorneys who negotiate complex technology agreements, provide daily operational support to a cybersecurity operations center, advocate the agency’s positions in litigation, draft and negotiate legislation, and respond to audits and investigations.
Mr. Sutherland’s position builds on a career focused on issues at the intersection of civil liberties and national security. In 2003, Mr. Sutherland was appointed by President Bush to serve as the first Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security. He provided advice to Secretaries Ridge and Chertoff on intelligence policy, disability law and policy, emergency preparedness and response, and immigration law. His speech on the need for the government to engage with American Arab and Muslim communities appeared in the publication Vital Speeches of the Day. Mr. Sutherland has also served in the Senior National Intelligence Service at the National Counterterrorism Center where he coordinated the government’s efforts to prevent violent extremism; Mr. Sutherland was referred to by Wired as “one of the government’s point people on stemming the appeal of al-Qaida.” Mr. Sutherland is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/G).
Mr. Sutherland started his federal career as a civil rights attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, where for 14 years he litigated cases in courts across the country. Mr. Sutherland is a graduate of the University of Louisville and University of Virginia School of Law.
Managing Director, SCF Partners
Daniel G. West invests in energy services, equipment, and technology companies at SCF Partners in Houston, Texas. He provides equity capital and strategic growth assistance to entrepreneurs and leaders of both start-up ventures and established, growing businesses.
Prior to joining the private sector, Mr. West served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a platoon commander with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Mesa Verde, he led the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel force in support of the NATO aerial campaign over Libya. He then served as executive officer of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines as it mentored Afghan forces to assume lead security responsibility and executed counter-narcotics missions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He also served as a clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. West holds degrees in law, business administration, and economics from Harvard University, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and taught undergraduate courses in economics and government. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International & National Security Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Shareholder, Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Shreck
With more than 20 years of experience both as a first-chair litigator and in public service, Greg Brower’s practice focuses on civil and criminal litigation, as well as regulatory and enforcement actions, corporate investigations, cybersecurity matters and federal and state government relations.
Most recently, Greg served as the assistant director for the Office of Congressional Affairs at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), serving as the FBI’s chief liaison to Congress on a wide range of critical oversight and investigative matters. He previously served as the FBI’s Deputy General Counsel, managing a diverse portfolio of legal matters, including litigation, privacy, procurement, compliance and ethics. During his time as a senior FBI executive, spanning two administrations, he worked closely with high-ranking officials in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. intelligence community and with key leaders on Capitol Hill. Greg is a regular commentator and contributor on national security, legal and cybersecurity issues, regularly appearing on CNN and MSNBC, and he is the featured contributor on white collar crime and corporate compliance for the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Pulse blog.
Greg has a long history of public service. At the federal level, he previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, and as both General Counsel and Inspector General at the U.S. Government Publishing Office. Greg also served at DOJ as Legislative Counsel in the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys. At the state level, he has served in a variety of public policy roles, including five terms in the Nevada Legislature, where he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has also served on the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee, the Nevada Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice, the Nevada Sentencing Commission and the Nevada Juvenile Justice Commission.
Throughout his career, Greg has served the Nevada legal community as an adjunct professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he has taught courses in national security law and trial advocacy. Before attending law school, Greg served in the U.S. Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer.
Senior Research Fellow in Anglo-American Relations, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, The Heritage Foundation
Theodore "Ted" R. Bromund studies and writes on Anglo-American relations, U.S. and British relations with Europe and the European Union, America’s leadership role in the world, and international organizations and treaties as senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
Bromund, who joined Heritage in 2008, previously served nine years as associate director of International Security Studies at Yale University, a center dedicated to the study and teaching of diplomatic history and grand strategy. He was a lecturer in history beginning in 1999, and in international affairs for the master of arts program beginning in 2004.
A columnist for Newsday, Forbes, and Great Britain’s Yorkshire Post, Bromund also writes regularly for National Review, The Weekly Standard, and FoxNews.com, and, in Britain, CapX. He has been interviewed or cited by BBC News, CBS News, Fox News Channel, CNN, Fox Business, Politifact, Radio Free Europe, The Christian Science Monitor, Time, and Financial Times, among others.
Besides contributing articles to scholarly journals, Bromund is the author of a chapter on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the book The Blair Legacy: Politics, Policy, Governance, and Foreign Affairs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
In 2013, Bromund was recognized by the Second Amendment Foundation as its Scholar of the Year for his analysis of the Arms Trade Treaty.
Bromund received his doctorate in history in 1999 from Yale. His thesis on Britain’s first application to the European Economic Community won the Samuel H. Beer Dissertation Prize from the American Political Science Association’s British Politics Group. In 2016, he received Heritage’s Joseph Shattan Award in recognition of the quality of his writing.
He is an adjunct professor of strategic studies in the Strategic Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where he teaches courses on grand strategy. He also holds two master’s degrees in history from Yale as well as a bachelor of arts degree from Iowa’s Grinnell College.
A native of Wooster, Ohio, he currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Partner, Baker & McKenzie LLP
Thomas Firestone represents clients in international white collar criminal investigations and compliance matters, including anti-corruption and US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), internal investigations and transactional due diligence. He is a member of the Firm's Global Compliance & Investigations Steering Committee. Prior to joining the Firm, Thomas spent 14 years at the US Department of Justice. He worked as an Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York where he prosecuted transnational organized crime cases. He also worked as Resident Legal Adviser and Acting Chief of the Law Enforcement Section at the US Embassy in Moscow. In the latter capacity, he facilitated US-Russian law enforcement cooperation, assisted the Russian government in drafting new criminal legislation, advised the US government on policy issues related to criminal justice in Russia and twice won the US State Department Superior Honor Award.
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.
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