Alex Wagner

B.A., with honors, Brown University; J.D., cum laude, Georgetown.

Professor Wagner is the Special Advisor for Rule of Law and Detainee Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In that capacity, he focuses on international negotiations and U.S. policy on landmines, cluster munitions, and unmanned and related weapons systems.  In 2011, he served as Deputy Head of the U.S. Delegation to the Convention on Certain Convention Weapons Review Conference at the UN in Geneva.  He also supports the Department's efforts to advance a political and legislative strategy to guide the development of a principled, credible law of war detention framework for ongoing operations in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan. Previously, he served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs, working on the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review and as an adviser on the U.S. delegation to the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

Prior to working at the Pentagon, Professor Wagner practiced law at Preston Gates & Ellis in Seattle (now K&L Gates) focused on intellectual property enforcement, civil rights law, and public policy. As counsel to Washington State Democratic Party, he was the lead associate directing the Party's U.S. Supreme Court argument and briefing strategy in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, et al.,—a First Amendment challenge to the State's "Top Two" primary. He also served in the Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs Office on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team and--during the 2008 presidential campaign--was Obama for America's National LGBT Vote Research Coordinator and managed the LGBT policy committee.  In 2012, he was selected as one of the best LGBT lawyers under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association.