Dakota Rudesill

Professor Rudesill is a scholar and practitioner of legislation and national security law and policy, and serves as Interim Director of the Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic (FLAC).

Professor Rudesill has advised senior leaders in all three branches of the federal government. He worked for the U.S. Congress for nine years, principally as legislative assistant for national security to Senator Kent Conrad and the senior professional staff member for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee responsible for national defense and international affairs spending. In the executive branch, as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, Professor Rudesill advised Dennis C. Blair, the President’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, and Leon Panetta, the President’s nominee to be CIA Director, as they prepared for confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Thereafter, he served for a year in the Policy, Plans, and Requirements directorate of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), during which he also served as ODNI representative to the Detention Policy Task Force established under Executive Order 13493 (Jan. 21, 2009). Previously, in the judicial branch, Professor Rudesill was a law clerk to James B. Loken, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

During his career, Professor Rudesill has also been a part-time visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center, law firm associate, think tank fellow, and national security consultant. He was awarded the foreign policy field’s premier fellowship, the CFR International Affairs Fellowship. He is an original member of the Project on Nuclear Issues, a multi-national effort initiated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and U.S. Strategic Command to create a new networked generation of nuclear experts to succeed the retiring Cold War generation. He received his B.A. from St. Olaf College and J.D. from Yale Law School.