Joseph Mead is Special Litigation Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and serves as the Institute’s General Counsel. He litigates cases across ICAP’s portfolio and advises the team on ethics matters.

Before joining the Institute, he was a tenured law professor. He also served as Associate General Counsel and cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, bringing strategic constitutional challenges to federal, state, and local laws that restrict constitutional
rights. Before that, Mead served as a Trial Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Federal Program Branch, where he defended the constitutionality of federal statutes and major agency policies in courts throughout the country.

Mead’s legal career started with clerkships for Judge Cornelia Kennedy of the United States
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge David Lawson of the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He received his juris doctor, magna cum laude, from
the University of Michigan Law School.