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.