Alex Joel

Guest Author

Alex Joel (@awjoel) is a Scholar-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor at the Washington College of Law, where he is part of the Tech, Law & Security Program. He is conducting research, developing programming, and teaching courses focused on the intersections between the law, national security, technology, and privacy. Until June 2019 he served as the Chief of the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency (CLPT) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). As Chief of CLPT, Mr. Joel was the ODNI’s Civil Liberties Protection Officer, a position established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act of 2004. Mr. Joel served in that position since the ODNI stood up in 2005. Since 2015, he also served as the ODNI’s Chief Transparency Officer, appointed to the position by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Previously, Mr. Joel worked as an attorney at the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel; as the privacy, technology, and e-commerce attorney for Marriott International, Inc.; and as a technology attorney at the law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge in Washington, D.C. (now Pillsbury Winthrop). He began his legal career as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corp. Mr. Joel has also served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the world’s largest association of privacy professionals. He received his law degree from the University of Michigan, and his undergraduate degree from Princeton University. He is also on LinkedIn.