Neil Harvey MacBride (born October 14, 1965) is an American attorney who is the General Counsel of the Department of the Treasury in the

Biden Administration Joe Biden's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 46th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Joe Biden, his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat from Delaw ...

. He previously served as the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the Eastern District of Virginia. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed MacBride's nomination as U.S. Attorney on September 15, 2009, and he took office three days later. He left office on September 13, 2013.

Early life and education

MacBride was born in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Yo ...

. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and the humanities from

Houghton College Houghton University is a private Christian liberal arts college in Houghton, New York. Houghton was founded in 1883 by Willard J. Houghton and is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church.

and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

from the

University of Virginia School of Law The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law or UVA Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as part of his "academical v ...

Career

Prior to his appointment by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

, MacBride served as an

associate deputy attorney general Associate deputy attorney general is a position in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General in United States Department of Justice. The number of positions varies widely depending on the staffing discretion of the deputy attorney general, but in 2 ...

at the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. MacBride formerly served as vice president, anti-piracy and general counsel, of the

Business Software Alliance The Software Alliance, also known as BSA, is a trade group established by Microsoft in 1988 to represent commercial software makers. It is a member of the International Intellectual Property Alliance. Its principal activity is trying to stop ...

, where he oversaw global anti-piracy enforcement and copyright policy. Prior to that, he served as staff director and chief counsel to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-Del.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2001 to 2005. From 1996 to 2001, MacBride was an Assistant

in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. Before his stint in public service, MacBride practiced law with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, Chartered. He also served as a judicial law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. in the Eastern District of Virginia. He is a barrister with the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court and serves on the board of advisors of the Center on Law & Security at New York University. He was the lead prosecutor in the

Megaupload Megaupload Ltd was a Hong Kong-based online company established in 2005 that operated from 2005 to 2012 providing online services related to file storage and viewing. On 19 January 2012, the United States Department of Justice seized the do ...

controversy. He is also responsible for filing motions in the Grand Jury investigation of

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

. In November 2020, MacBride was named a volunteer member of the

Joe Biden presidential transition The presidential transition of Joe Biden began on November 7, 2020 and ended on January 20, 2021. Unlike previous presidential transitions, which normally take place during the roughly 10-week period between the election in the first week o ...

Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

Nomination to be general counsel

On June 3, 2021, President Biden nominated MacBride to be the next general counsel of the Department of the Treasury. The Senate's Finance Committee held hearings on his nomination on September 22, 2021. On December 16, 2021, the committee voted to favorably report his nomination to the Senate floor. On February 9, 2022, the entire Senate confirmed MacBride's nomination by a vote of 61–33. He was sworn in on February 22, 2022.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macbride, Neil 1965 births Houghton University alumni Living people New York University faculty United States Department of the Treasury officials United States Attorneys for the Eastern District of Virginia Virginia lawyers Virginia Democrats Biden administration personnel