Joseph B. Maher

/My focus

My practice focuses on handling complex issues associated with national and homeland security, customs and tariff issues, government investigations, and compliance.

I served for more than 15 years as the most senior career attorney in the Department of Homeland Security, handling complex domestic and international challenges, and advising multiple secretaries and other senior leadership on legal and policy issues relating to counterterrorism, trade enforcement, oversight investigations, and cybersecurity. While at the department, I also served as the chief intelligence officer and as the head of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. I served as the acting general counsel multiple times for extended periods.

I have significant experience in both offensive and defensive aspects of congressional investigations. I served as a senior counsel in one of the largest congressional investigations in history. In that role, I worked as one of the lead attorneys for the US House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol. My work has also included the defense of senior officials and programs targeted by congressional investigations.

/Representative experience

Joe uses his past experience to represent a diverse client base, including entities, individuals, and executives, in all types of investigations, litigation, enforcement matters, and crisis management situations. The below experience includes representations while with the government and during his work at another international law firm:

• Legal experience on cross-border trade issues. For more than ten years, oversaw the legal division responsible for customs and other trade matters and participated in a number of high-profile matters. This included, for example, cases involving the assessment of import penalties that have ranged from low millions to multi-hundred million dollar penalties.
• Oversaw the development of the department’s legal cybersecurity practice. This legal work involved responses to cyberattacks, internal advice about the legality of cybersecurity defenses and operations, and advice concerning legal authority (existing or prospective legislation) to regulate private-sector cybersecurity activities. 
• Advised on high-profile cyberattack incidents. These incidents involved privately owned critical infrastructure and attacks on government systems.
• Involving the chemical industry and the nation’s critical infrastructure, played a key role in developing legislation and then a regulatory framework for the security of high-risk chemical facilities across the country. Subsequently, oversaw the development of enforcement mechanisms for this regulatory program.
• Oversaw the legal offices of both the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, providing oversight and guidance on a wide array of regulatory programs administered by those agencies.
• Advised on national security aspects of foreign investments in the United States. Advised secretaries and other senior leaders on hundreds of transactions reviewed by CFIUS. These have included transactions involving cybersecurity issues, network industries, the aviation industry, and the maritime industry.
• Involved in the department’s efforts to enforce statutory provisions prohibiting the importation of merchandise produced with forced labor.
• Played a significant role in the resolution of the West Coast Ports labor dispute in 2002. This labor dispute, which affected all shipping imports into the United States West Coast, was resolved under the rarely invoked procedures of the Taft-Hartley Act. This involved seeking an executive order from the president, creating a board of inquiry, litigation, and drafting a report to the president.
• Worked as part of a team defending a large telecommunications client in criminal and civil investigations by multiple federal agencies.
• Represented large accounting firms and other clients in financial and securities litigation.
• Represented clients in appeals before multiple federal appellate courts.

Prior Government Experience

• US Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC, 2003 to 2024: Acting General Counsel (multiple dates); Principal Deputy General Counsel (2011 to 2024); Deputy General Counsel (2007 to 2011); Associate General Counsel, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs (2005 to 2007); Attorney Advisor (2003 to 2005).
  • Advised on all legal aspects of homeland security, including cybersecurity, intelligence, customs and trade, transportation security, data protection, and regulatory enforcement
  • Advised on high profile internal and congressional investigations
  • Advised the secretary and other senior officials on all legal aspects of business, security, and enforcement operations of the department; advised on sensitive, internal investigations and reviews
  • Served as the department’s senior ethics and compliance official, overseeing ethics and financial reporting programs across all components of the organization
  • Advised on hundreds of foreign investment matters involving CFIUS and Team Telecom
  • Advised on liability protections for private sector development of anti-terrorism technologies under the SAFETY Act
• US House of Representatives, Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, Washington, DC; senior counsel to Vice Chair Liz Cheney, 2021 to January 2023. Experience working for the House January 6th Select Committee involved all aspects of that committee’s work: interviewing witnesses, developing investigative strategy, preparing Members for hearings, and developing strategy for litigation involving more than thirty lawsuits at all levels from federal district courts to the US Supreme Court.
• US Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Washington, DC, 2002 to 2003: associate deputy solicitor (2003); special assistant to the solicitor (2002)
  • Advised the Secretary of Labor, Solicitor of Labor, and other senior officials on broad array of regulatory and enforcement matters (including, e.g., OSHA, ERISA, and wage and hour law enforcement)
  • Key member of legal team operating under emergency legal authorities to resolve a major labor dispute in West Coast maritime ports

Clerkship

• Honorable E. Grady Jolly, US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

/Looking ahead

The impact of national security concerns on business entities will continue to increase as the intersection of business and national security continues to grow. In addition, the federal government (including congressional committees) is developing an increasingly aggressive approach to its regulatory activities and investigations involving corporate interests. Clients need extensive experience at these points of intersection.

/Insights

• “AI, National Security &  the Law,” Border Security Expo, April 9, 2025
• “Legislative Counsels in Leadership Roles,” DC Bar Legislative Counsel Summit, May 10, 2024