Joe Dally Whitley (born November 12, 1950) is an American lawyer from Georgia who was the first General Counsel for the United States Department of Homeland Security. He works in private practice at Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP and has been named a Super Lawyer, listed in The Best Lawyers in America®, named a ‘’2019 Lawyer of the Year’’, is AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers.
Background
During the George H. W. Bush administration, Whitley served as the Acting United States Associate Attorney General, the third-ranking position in the United States Department of Justice. Under President Ronald Reagan, he was the U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Georgia, and under President George H. W. Bush, Whitley served as the U.S. Attorney in the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia in Atlanta. At the time of his appointment he was youngest person ever to be appointed a U.S. Attorney and only person to ever serve as U.S. Attorney for two separate federal jurisdictions.
Private Practice
Prior to joining the Department of Homeland Security, and immediately following his service at DHS, Whitley was a partner at Alston & Bird, where he served as head of the firm's White Collar Government Enforcement & Investigations Group, his practice concentrating on government investigations, environmental and health care fraud and complex civil litigation.
Whitley is the former Chair of the Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association. He is a former council member of the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association. He served as Vice Chair for Governmental Affairs of the 2002–03 ABA Criminal Justice Section. He also chairs annual seminars and institutes of continuing education on White Collar Crime, Health Care Fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Internal Investigations and Cybercrime. Whitley co-chairs the ABA's Annual National Homeland Security Law Institute in Washington, DC.
Whitley is licensed to practice law in Georgia and the District of Columbia.
Publications and Presentations
Whitley is a frequent author, and a frequent speaker and lecturer at institutions, events and seminars, including, without limitation, the following.
Publications
Homeland Security: Legal and Policy Issues, with Lynne K. Zusman, book published by the American Bar Association
Co-Author, "The Case for Reevaluating DOJ Policies on Prosecuting White Collar Crime," Washington Legal Foundation, Critical Legal Issues, No. 108, May 2002
Author, "Business Continuity", Directors & Boards, February 2006
Author, "Homeland Security: Preparing for Legal and Policy Changes," Bloomberg Corporate Law Journal, Winter 2006
Author, "Homeland Security After Hurricane Katrina: Where Do We Go From Here," Natural Resources & Environment, June 6, 2006
Author, "The SAFETY Act: A Vital Tool In The Fight Against Terrorism," Contemporary Legal Notes, November 2006
Author, "New Federal Rule Dictating Anti-Terrorism Standards for Chemical Facilities," Washington Legal Foundation Contemporary Legal Series, June 2007
Author, "Critical Infrastructure," American Bar Association Homeland Security and National Defense Newsletter, Fall 2007
Author, "The ICE-Man Cometh: Crackdown of Immigration in the Meat Processing Industry," American Bar Association Homeland Security and National Defense Newsletter, Fall 2007
Author, "Chemical Security: Recent Regulation and the Impact on the Private Sector," New Jersey Law Journal, Fall 2007
Author, "Recent Developments in Critical Infrastructure Protection," The Real Estate Finance Journal, Fall 2007
Co-author – "Homeland Security and Domestic Intelligence: Legal Considerations," The U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook, American Bar Association, 2011 Edition (August 2011)
"Judge Approves New Scheduling Order in Expedia Case," Ledger-Enquirer (February 2012)
Quoted – "Likely FBI Nominee to Face NSA Debate," The Wall Street Journal (June 2013)
Quoted – "The Morning Risk Report: Drop in FCPA Independent Monitors Continues in 2013," The Wall Street Journal (July 2013)
Co-author – "Lessons for General Counsel from Recent Cyberattack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management," Daily Report (August 2015)
"WLF Overcriminalization Timeline:Deferred-Prosecution and Non-Prosecution Agreements, Washington Legal Foundation (November 2015)
Co-author – "Creating Value in FCPA Investigations Through Increasing Cooperation Credit," FCPA Report (January 2016)
Co-author – "What To Do Before Government Agents Come Knocking," Attorney at Law Magazine, Vol. 5 No. 1 (March 2016)
Co-author – "How to Value Compliance Programs, Internal Investigations," Daily Report (July 2016)
Co-author – "Cybersecurity Public Private Partnerships: Challenges and Opportunities, Cybersecurity Law & Strategy (February 2017)
Co-author – "INSIGHT: The Looming Litigation Buried in the Mueller Report," Bloomberg Law (March 2019)
Presentations
Joe D. Whitley On the C-SPAN Networks
ABA 10th Annual ADMINISTRATIVE LAW & REGULATORY PRACTICE INSTITUTE (Section Chair – Joe D. Whitley)
"National Institute on White Collar Crime" (March 2019)
"The Role of Lawyers in Cybersecurity," Homeland Security Law Institute, George Washington University, Washington D.C. (September 2017)
"The State of Homeland Security and the Rule of Law," National Security Program and the National Security Law Association, George Washington University Law School, Washington, D.C. (September 2017)
12"U.S. CMBC-Board: Joe D. Whitley". govinfo.library.unt.edu. The University of North Texas Libraries and the U.S. Government Printing Office as part of the Federal Depository Library Program. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
