David B. Rivkin, Jr.

David B. Rivkin, Jr., is a partner in the firm's Washington office and a member of its litigation, international, and environmental groups. He has in-depth experience with various constitutional issues that are frequently implicated by federal regulatory statutes, including commerce clause-, appointments clause-, and due process-related issues, as well as First and Tenth amendment-related matters. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Nixon Center and a Contributing Editor of National Review magazine.

Mr. Rivkin has practiced in the area of public international law and has extensive experience in international arbitration and policy advocacy on a wide range of international and domestic issues, including treaty implementation, multilateral and unilateral sanctions, corporate law, environmental and energy matters (with an emphasis on policy, regulatory, and enforcement issues).

He is also particularly knowledgeable about, and has been involved in, the handling of complex and contentious matters for clients that require the combination of lobbying, litigation, and public relations and implicate difficult public policy issues.

Mr. Rivkin, from 1993 to December 1999, was a member of Hunton and Williams' law firm. Prior to returning to private practice in 1993, Mr. Rivkin was Associate Executive Director and Counsel of the President's Council on Competitiveness at the White House. While there he was responsible for the review and analysis of legal issues related to the regulatory review conducted by the Council.

He also handled the development and implementation of President Bush's de-regulatory initiatives, carried out during 1991-92, which entailed review of all existing federal regulatory strictures and the application of a more rigorous cost-effective standard to new regulations. Substantive areas of responsibility included international economic matters and energy, environment, and tax issues. He played a leading role in the development of Order 636, which introduced major changes to the regulation of the interstate natural gas pipelines, and simultaneously served as the Special Assistant for Domestic Policy to then Vice President Dan Quayle.

Mr. Rivkin, as Associate General Counsel, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 1990-91, was responsible for international, constitutional, environmental, and energy matters, including global climate change problems; natural gas, hydro, and electricity issues; development and implementation of the Natural Energy Strategy; implementation of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990; wetlands policy and related issues; development of RCRA and Clean Water Act legislative proposals; and deregulation of energy markets.

Mr. Rivkin also played a significant role in developing the Reagan and Bush Administrations' regulatory and legislative proposals affecting natural gas and electric utility industries. In addition to his positions with the Council on Competitiveness and the Department of Energy, he served in the Office of then Vice President George Bush, as Legal Advisor to the Counsel to the President, and as Deputy Director of the Office of Policy Development (OPD), U.S. Department of Justice. While at OPD, he worked on a wide variety of constitutional, domestic, and international issues, including judicial selection, legal policy, immigration and asylum matters, and intelligence oversight.

Prior to embarking on a legal career, Mr. Rivkin served as a defense and foreign policy analyst, focusing on Soviet affairs, arms control, naval strategy, and NATO-related issues, and worked as a defense consultant to numerous government agencies and Washington think tanks.

Mr. Rivkin is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a prolific writer and has published numerous papers, articles, op eds, book reviews, and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental, and energy issues in various publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, National Interest, National Review, Policy Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, American University Law Review, Administrative Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and University of Chicago Journal of International Law. In particular, Mr. Rivkin has written widely about various aspects of the international law of armed conflict, including jus in bello, treatment of unlawful combatants, and jus ad bellum-related matters. He has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows, including CNN, NBC and MSNBC, CBS, ABC/Nightline, FOX News, NPR, PBS, BBC, and numerous foreign stations.

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