Chloes Corner

Brandon Van Grack: A Profile in Law, Security, and Public Service

We meet lawyers every day. Few sit at the fault line where law, security, and policy collide. Brandon Van Grack does. His work crosses courtrooms, crisis rooms, and hearing rooms. It touches how the United States guards secrets, tracks foreign influence, and guides companies through fast-moving rules. In other words, his path shows what modern national security law looks like in real life—messy, urgent, and deeply human.

This profile walks through that path. We look at how he trained. We look at the choices he made in government. We look at the tools he uses now in private practice. But most of all, we look at what you and I can learn from that mix: how to think clearly when the stakes are high, how to build trust when doubt is heavy, and how to keep our footing when the ground shifts under us.

From Training to Mission

Every career starts with craft. Van Grack built his on strong ground. He studied widely as an undergraduate and then trained as a lawyer at Harvard Law School. He then clerked for a federal judge in Washington, D.C. That early exposure matters. It shows you how judges see facts. It teaches you how cases really move. It also builds the habit of clean writing. Short sentences. Clear logic. No drama, just proof.

After that, he stepped into public service at the U.S. Department of Justice. He worked across national security offices. He was a trial attorney. He later advised the Assistant Attorney General. He also served as a federal prosecutor. Those roles taught speed and care at the same time. The lesson is simple but hard: move fast, but do not skip steps.

Learning the Government’s Playbook

Government work is team sport. You do not do it alone. You work with agents, analysts, and career staff. You manage policy risk and legal risk together. One day you are drafting a filing. The next day you are in a secure room reading intelligence. The day after that you may brief a court, a cabinet official, or a grand jury.

This is where Van Grack learned the core playbook of national security law. It has a few parts:

• Facts first. Classify what you know. Then test it.
• Narrow the ask. Ask the court only for what you can prove.
• Protect sources. Even as you disclose what you must, shield how you learned it.
• Think downstream. Every filing shapes future law. Every choice sets a tone.

Instead of chasing headlines, you keep the arc of the case in view. After more than a few tours in those roles, that habit is muscle memory.

The Special Counsel Chapter

Most people first heard his name during the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Van Grack served as a senior lawyer on that team. He led the prosecution of a former national security adviser. He also worked on the trial team that secured a conviction of a former campaign chair. Those cases were intense. The facts were complex. The politics were louder than the law. Yet the job did not change: gather evidence, make the case, and face the court.

Work like this distills a few basics:

• Materiality matters. It is not just whether a statement was false. It is whether it mattered to the investigation.
• Process is protection. Careful steps protect both the public and the defendant.
• Independence is earned. You prove it by your actions and by your filings, not by your press quotes.

In other words, the lesson of that period was the same as the lesson of every good case: do the work, show the proof, and let the record speak.

Rebuilding a Dormant Law: FARA Enforcement

After the Special Counsel chapter, Van Grack became Chief of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit at DOJ. FARA is an old law with a simple idea: when people act in the U.S. at the direction of foreign principals, they must register and disclose. For years, enforcement was light. Many treated it as a paperwork rule. That changed. Under his watch, the Department sent a new signal: transparency is a national security need, not an extra chore.

What did that look like in practice?

• More guidance. Clearer letters. Clearer expectations.
• More cases. Both criminal and civil.
• More compliance. Firms built real programs. Clients asked harder questions.
• More public understanding. Reporters, researchers, and the public learned what FARA covers and what it does not.

This shift did not turn FARA into a blunt tool. It sharpened it. It moved the focus from “gotcha” moments to a culture of early notice and early fixes. It also nudged Congress and agencies to look at foreign influence across a wider map, including new transparency regimes in other countries. Most of all, it showed how one office, with steady leadership, can reset norms.

Counterintelligence, Trade, and Technology

National security law used to live mostly in spy stories. Not anymore. It now flows through supply chains, chip fabs, cloud servers, and data brokers. As a senior official in DOJ’s National Security Division, Van Grack worked in that space too. He dealt with counterintelligence threats, export controls, and sanctions. He helped shape cases that sat at the edge of technology and the law.

Why does that matter to you and me? Because those rules now touch everyday business. If you build, ship, invest, or hire, you live inside this web:

• Export controls decide what tech can leave the country and who can buy it.
• Sanctions freeze assets and limit deals with listed actors and regions.
• CFIUS reviews foreign investments that touch sensitive sectors.
• Data rules now treat some datasets like physical goods when the risk is high.

Instead of a narrow national security world, we now have a broad one. The line between a company’s “legal risk” and a country’s “security risk” is thin. That means leaders need counsel who can read both maps at once. This is the niche Van Grack moved into when he returned to private practice.

What He Does in Private Practice

Today, Van Grack co-chairs national security and crisis management groups at a major law firm in Washington, D.C. The client mix is wide. Startups building AI. Chip and cloud companies. Funds placing cross-border investments. Multinationals that sell into hard markets. Boards and audit committees that want to sleep at night.

Here is the kind of work that fills his calendar:

• Rapid response. A subpoena lands. A disclosure issue pops up. A leak is alleged. The first 48 hours matter. The team sets an action plan.
• Program builds. Companies need right-sized controls. Not binders on shelves. Real workflows. Real training. Clear owners.
• Voluntary disclosures. When a mistake happens, the question is how and when to disclose. Good counsel lays out the path, the timing, and the tone.
• CFIUS strategy. Should you file? Can you carve out? How do you fix risk to close a deal?
• Congressional oversight. Hearing prep. Document strategy. Messaging that respects both law and the public’s right to know.
• Board guidance. Risk dashboards that map sanctions, export controls, FARA, anti-corruption, cybersecurity, and data flows in one view.

In other words, the job is to make complex rules usable. We do not just want memos. We want decisions we can live with.

A Voice in the Public Square

Van Grack also teaches by showing his work in public. He writes. He speaks. He breaks down new rules and cases. He explains why a new export control matters. He explains what a court filing means in plain English. He also hosts and joins podcasts to unpack how regulators think. That openness is not just about brand. It serves the larger mission: make national security law legible so more people can follow it.

The style is steady. No hot takes. Just analysis. The focus is on “what’s new, what it means, and what to do next.” That steady voice is useful in times of noise. It helps the public. It helps companies. It keeps the conversation grounded.

How He Thinks: Five Working Principles

Every good lawyer carries a few rules in mind. Here are five that capture Van Grack’s approach as seen across his roles:

1. Start with the system, not the story. We all love a story. But systems last longer. If you fix the system that failed, you solve more than one case.
2. Make it findable. If your process is too complex, people will not use it. Simple checklists and clear decision rights help teams act under stress.
3. Disclose early when it counts. Regulators reward speed, clarity, and candor. Delay often makes a small problem big.
4. Protect people while you protect the record. The right tone in interviews and filings matters. It earns trust. It lowers heat. It invites facts.
5. Teach as you go. Every crisis is a class. When it ends, write down what you learned. Update the playbook. Share lessons across teams.

These rules are not fancy. They are practical. They make any legal and security program stronger.

What This Means for Companies

You might not face a Special Counsel. You might never see a FARA letter. But you still live in the same risk climate. Rules change fast. Headlines shape markets. Data moves at light speed. So what can we do?

Build a one-page map. Put your top risks on a single page. Sanctions, export controls, data, foreign influence, cyber, and fraud. Name an owner for each box. Add the key actions and the “stop the line” triggers.

Write short plays. For each risk, have a two-page “play.” Who leads? Who drafts? How do we preserve evidence? When do we call outside counsel? What do we say, and when? Keep it short enough that people will read it.

Practice the first hour. Run a short drill. Simulate an email from a regulator or an urgent press call. Time your team. In other words, turn theory into muscle memory.

Design for speed. Put your data in places where you can find it. Label sensitive flows. Know who has access. Know who can shut a system down. During a crisis, search time is pain.

Set a disclosure bar. Be honest about your threshold. If you cross it, move. Draft. Review. Send. Regulators know the difference between fear and good faith.

Invest in culture. People report issues when they feel safe. Leaders earn that trust by how they act when news lands. Praise early reporting. Fix the process. Avoid blame first.

These steps do not require a giant budget. They require focus, clarity, and follow-through.

What This Means for Public Service

Van Grack’s path also highlights what public service needs from us. It needs patience. It needs care. It needs people who can hold two truths at once: that national security is real, and so are civil liberties; that transparency is a shield, and so is secrecy, depending on the task. It needs leaders who can take heat and stay steady.

If you are thinking about government work, here are a few takeaways:

• The work is bigger than you. Cases come and go. Institutions stay.
• Write like the public is reading. Because they are. Clear words build trust.
• Treat the other side with dignity. You may disagree. You still owe fairness.
• Leave the place better than you found it. Update a policy. Share a tool. Mentor someone.

In other words, service is a craft. You get better with practice, but only if you keep your mind open and your standards high.

The Human Side of High-Pressure Work

You cannot work these cases and stay untouched. They demand long hours. They draw fire. They ask you to make very hard calls. The way through is very human:

• Team first. Share the load. Share the credit.
• Boundaries. Step away when you can. Protect your time, your family, your sleep.
• Mentors and peers. Ask for advice. Offer it, too.
• Values. Remember why you started. That anchor keeps you steady when storms hit.

This is the part of the story we rarely see. But it is the part that keeps good people in the work.

The Craft of Crisis Management

Crisis management sounds dramatic. It is not. Good crisis work is calm, quiet, and precise. You do a few simple things well:

1. Stabilize. Identify the facts you know. Freeze the scene. Stop the ongoing harm.
2. Sequence. Order the work. Collect. Preserve. Interview. Assess.
3. Communicate. Tell the truth. Use short words. Share what you can, when you can.
4. Remediate. Fix the root cause. Update controls. Train people.
5. Document. Write it all down. Your future self—and your regulator—will thank you.

Van Grack’s crisis work follows this path. It turns chaos into steps. It swaps panic for order. It shows teams how to make good decisions when their hands are shaking.

Why This Profile Matters Now

We live in a time when lines blur. National security and commerce. Speech and secrecy. Rulemaking and real-time enforcement. AI is moving fast. Chips are strategic. Data is a target. Elections bring new rules. Wars shift supply chains. In this world, people who can bridge law and policy are guides. They help us keep our balance.

A career like Van Grack’s offers that guide. It shows us how institutions can adapt. It shows us how rules can keep pace with risk. It shows us how private and public sectors can work together without losing their soul.

A Short Toolkit You Can Use

Let’s turn this into action. Here is a crisp checklist you can copy today:

• Risk Map: One page. Six boxes (sanctions, export, CFIUS, FARA/influence, cyber, data). Owners named.
• Disclosure Ladder: Green (monitor), Yellow (internal remediation), Red (regulator notice now).
• First-Hour Plan: Who opens the matter file? Who preserves logs? Who calls outside counsel? Who holds statements?
• Data Locator: Where are your sensitive datasets? Who can pull an access report in 10 minutes?
• Vendor Triage: Top 20 vendors by risk. Contract terms checked for audit and exit rights.
• Board Brief: Quarterly two-page update with plain English metrics and trends.
• Training Lite: 20-minute video and a five-question quiz. Focus on “what to do next,” not theory.
• Post-Mortem: After a drill or a real event, write a one-pager. What worked. What broke. What we will fix by a date.

Simple tools. Real impact.

What We Learn from One Career

A profile is never a monument. It is a mirror. It shows us what we might become if we take our craft seriously and serve a cause bigger than ourselves. Van Grack’s path—from clerkship, to DOJ, to Special Counsel, to FARA chief, to firm leader—makes one point in clear lines: the law is a living system. It bends with new threats. It grows with new tech. It still depends on people who care enough to do the work right.

You and I can take that to heart. We can write tighter. We can train our teams. We can set better controls. We can show up when it is hard. And we can do all of that with humility. Because humility and strength are not opposites. They hold each other up.

Closing Signals of Service

Our world will keep changing. Laws will update. Cases will come and go. Headlines will flare and fade. What lasts are the habits we build and the values we live. Brandon Van Grack’s career points to a set of simple signals we can follow: speak plainly, choose fairness, act fast but carefully, and leave the system stronger than we found it. If we do that—together—we serve more than our own interests. We serve the public. We serve each other. And, in the quiet that follows, we build the kind of trust that lets free people stay free.

We meet lawyers every day. Few sit at the fault line where law, security, and policy collide. Brandon Van Grack does. His work crosses courtrooms, crisis rooms, and hearing rooms. It touches how the United States guards secrets, tracks foreign influence, and guides companies through fast-moving rules. In other words, his path shows what modern…

We meet lawyers every day. Few sit at the fault line where law, security, and policy collide. Brandon Van Grack does. His work crosses courtrooms, crisis rooms, and hearing rooms. It touches how the United States guards secrets, tracks foreign influence, and guides companies through fast-moving rules. In other words, his path shows what modern…