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Joshua Geltzer

Dr. Joshua Geltzer (LinkedIn) is a partner in WilmerHale’s Defense, National Security and Government Contracts Practice.  He focuses his practice on a wide array of cutting-edge national security issues, including artificial intelligence, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), crisis management, cybersecurity and national security-related litigation. As the former top national security lawyer for the White House, Dr. Geltzer offers both strategic counsel and practical legal advice to clients navigating the statutory and regulatory issues associated with emerging technologies across all sectors.

Dr. Geltzer joined the firm after serving as Deputy Assistant to the President, Deputy White House Counsel, and Legal Advisor to the National Security Council (NSC), providing legal counsel to the President and White House leadership on matters of national defense, intelligence and foreign relations. Before that, he was Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor, where he advised on counterterrorism, election security, migration management, and the release of US hostages and wrongful detainees. Dr. Geltzer also served as Special Assistant to the President and Special Advisor on Countering Domestic Violent Extremism, overseeing the development and implementation of the country’s first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.

Prior to his roles in the Biden Administration, Dr. Geltzer was the executive director and visiting professor of law at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law Center, where he built and directed the institute, engaging in complex public interest litigation at all levels of the federal and state courts.

Before joining Georgetown Law, Dr. Geltzer began his government service immersed in complex national security legal and policy issues, serving as Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the NSC, Deputy Legal Advisor to the NSC and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice.

Dr. Geltzer clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the US Supreme Court and Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Articles by this author:

U.S. President Donald Trump touches the arms of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis while delivering remarks during a meeting with military leaders in the Cabinet Room on October 23, 2018 in Washington, DC.
A member of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) stands on guard past US military armoured vehicles and soldiers on patrol near an oil well in Rumaylan (Rmeilan) in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on November 6, 2019.
A U.S. Air Force Commando Solo aircraft flies over the Statue of LIberty October 23, 2001 in New York Harbor.
Trump with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, at the White House on Wednesday, May 10, 2017.
Side by side images of a man leaving flowers at a memorial near the Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed in a mass shooting on August 16, 2019, and flowers and messages placed on the Lakemba Mosque wall in tribute to the victims of the Christchurch attacks on March 22, 2019 in Sydney, Australia.
A collage of images that show Trump, Trump appointees, and Putin.
Rally attendees cast shadows as they hold campaign signs during a rally held by 2020 Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) in Davenport, Iowa on August 12, 2019.
Trump winks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, March 25, 2019.
The dome of the U.S. Capitol Buidling and the US flag.
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US Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and US Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, look on during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 11, 2019.

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