Nathan L. Mitchell

Nathan Mitchell is an international trade and national security partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Nathan Mitchell advises clients on national security matters, including reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), and Team Telecom, as well as on cybersecurity and information privacy issues.

Nathan gained significant national security experience as a lawyer for the U.S. government, including most recently as an associate general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In that role, he worked on CFIUS matters, including developing the ODNI’s input on the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act. Nathan also advised ODNI and U.S. intelligence officials on a range of issues related to intelligence activities and cyber operations. Among other things, he helped author procedures for protecting the civil liberties and privacy of U.S. persons during the course of intelligence collection activities, and served as legal adviser to the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center.

During his last year at the ODNI, Nathan was detailed to the Foreign Investment Review Section of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, where he worked on CFIUS matters. Nathan reviewed and investigated transactions in a number of industries, such as telecommunications, insurance, electronics and cybersecurity. His experience includes identifying national security risks presented by covered transactions and developing measures to resolve those risks, including through mitigation agreements or conditions imposed by CFIUS. Nathan also monitored companies’ compliance with mitigation agreements and worked on other matters related to national security and foreign investment, including the federal government’s supply chain risk-management initiatives.

Before joining the intelligence community, Nathan served as a lawyer for the U.S. Army in the Office of the Army General Counsel, in both active duty and civilian positions. As a captain in the U.S. Army, Nathan served as an assistant to the Army general counsel. Later, as a civilian, he served as an associate deputy general counsel. In these positions, Nathan gained experience in information security and privacy, where, among other things, he advised senior Army officials on responding to data breaches and developed the data-privacy protections for the Army’s “Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers,” a groundbreaking partnership between the Army and the National Institute of Mental Health that produced the largest study of mental health ever conducted among military personnel.