Jamil N. Jaffer is an Advisor to the firm.
Mr. Jaffer currently serves as Vice President for Strategy & Business Development at IronNet Cybersecurity, a startup technology firm founded by former National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Keith Alexander (ret.) and former National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Matt Olsen. Mr. Jaffer also serves as the Founder of National Security Institute and as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Director of the National Security Law & Policy Program at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Mr. Jaffer is also a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, is affiliated with Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), and recently served as a clerk to Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the United States Supreme Court.
Prior to his current positions, Mr. Jaffer served as the Chief Counsel and Senior Advisor for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC)., where he worked on key national security and foreign policy issues. Before joining SFRC, Mr. Jaffer served as Senior Counsel to the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) where he led the committee’s oversight of NSA surveillance, NRO, and NGA matters, as well as intelligence community-wide counterterrorism matters.
In the Bush Administration, Mr. Jaffer served in the White House as an Associate Counsel to the President, handling Defense Department, State Department, and Intelligence Community matters.
Prior to the White House, Mr. Jaffer served in the Justice Department as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, where he focused on counterterrorism and intelligence matters. For his work, Mr. Jaffer was awarded the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Special Initiative and was among the group of lawyers awarded the Director of National Intelligence’s 2008 Legal Award (Team of the Year – Cyber Legal). Mr. Jaffer also served in other positions within the Justice Department, including in the Office of Legal Policy.
Mr. Jaffer was also involved in private practice at Kellogg Huber, a Washington, DC-based litigation boutique, as a policy advisor to Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and as a staff member or senior advisor on a number of political campaigns, including two presidential campaigns and a presidential transition team.
Mr. Jaffer has published multiple op-eds and academic articles, and is the co-author of a book chapter with former CIA Director Gen. Mike Hayden on ISIS, al Qaeda, and other international terrorist groups in Choosing to Lead: American Foreign Policy for a Disordered World (2015), and a book chapter on surveillance in the ABA’s Law of Counterterrorism (2011).
Mr. Jaffer also serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Intelligence Policy and the Board of Advisors for the Concordia Summit.
Mr. Jaffer holds degrees from UCLA (B.A., cum laude), the University of Chicago Law School (J.D., with honors), and the United States Naval War College (M.A., with distinction).
