Practice Focus

John Bellinger is a partner in the firm's national and homeland security practice group as well as its international practice. Before joining Arnold & Porter LLP, Mr. Bellinger served in a number of senior positions in the US government, including as The Legal Adviser to the Department of State from 2005 to 2009 under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and previously as the Legal Adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House from 2001-2005. He counsels US and foreign clients on national security legal and policy issues, including regulation of foreign investment in the United States, export and munitions controls, US and multilateral financial sanctions and asset controls, and extraterritorial application of US criminal and civil laws. His practice includes issues arising under the Arms Export Control Act, the Helms-Burton Act, the Iran Sanctions Act, and transactions reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He also advises foreign governments, international organizations, and multinational corporations on international and US foreign relations law in international arbitrations, investigations, and dispute resolution and in litigation in US courts. He has extensive experience in cases arising under the Alien Tort Statute.

As the State Department Legal Adviser—the most senior international lawyer in the U.S. Government—Mr. Bellinger managed more than 170 lawyers who advise the Secretary of State and State Department officials, as well as the White House and other US departments, on domestic and international law matters affecting US foreign relations. These matters include negotiation and interpretation of treaties; international arbitration and dispute settlement; US and UN financial sanctions; munitions and export controls; international criminal and law enforcement matters, including extraditions; international humanitarian law and human rights law; terrorism-related litigation; foreign sovereign and official immunities; and maritime and international environmental issues. In 2009, Mr. Bellinger received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award.

Mr. Bellinger has argued cases before the International Court of Justice (Mexico v. United States–(Medellin)) and the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. He has appeared on numerous briefs in US federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, in litigation involving international and foreign relations law issues, including the Alien Tort Statute and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. He led numerous US delegations in treaty negotiations and meetings with foreign heads of state and senior government and international organization officials in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Before joining the State Department, Mr. Bellinger managed Secretary Rice's confirmation process and co-directed her State Department transition team. He has extensive experience with congressional hearings and investigations and with federal ethics issues.

As Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the NSC, Mr. Bellinger advised the President, Cabinet officials, the National Security Adviser, and NSC staff on a wide variety of national security and international law issues. He represented the White House in dealings with the 9/11 Commission and was one of the principal drafters of the legislation that created the Director of National Intelligence.

Mr. Bellinger previously served as Counsel for National Security Matters in the Criminal Division at the US Department of Justice from 1997 to 2001, in which capacity he helped to manage sensitive criminal investigations with international and national security aspects, including terrorism, espionage, organized crime, export control, and FCPA investigations. Mr. Bellinger also served as Of Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1996); General Counsel of the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the US Intelligence Community (1995-1996); and Special Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster (1988-1991).

Mr. Bellinger is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is directing a project on international justice. Mr. Bellinger has provided numerous briefings for the press and foreign audiences on international and national security law issues and appears regularly on domestic and international media, including US networks, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, BBC, and National Public Radio. He has lectured at dozens of US and foreign universities and law schools, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, Michigan, Vanderbilt, Texas, Oxford, the London School of Economics, Tsinghua (China), and Leiden (the Netherlands). He is the author of numerous articles on international law issues, including op-eds in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and International Herald Tribune.

Mr. Bellinger is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Society of International Law, the American Law Institute, the American Council on Germany, and the British-American Project. He is one of four US Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and a member of the US "National Group", which nominates judges to the International Court of Justice.

Mr. Bellinger is a graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and he holds an MA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and a JD from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard International Law Journal.