Alexander K. Haas (Alex)

Alex Haas is counsel in the Litigation & Antitrust Practice Group in King & Spalding’s Washington, D.C., office

Representative Experience

• Mr. Haas joined King & Spalding in 2011 after spending eight years at the U.S. Department of Justice. 
  
  
• Most recently, Mr. Haas served as Counsel for National Security Law and Policy in the National Security Division’s Office of Law and Policy.  There, he provided advice and drafted guidance to senior leaders in the Department, Division, and within the Intelligence Community on legal questions concerning the most sensitive national security, privacy, telecommunications, law enforcement, and intelligence issues facing the Federal Government.  He developed particular expertise regarding the scope of U.S. legal authorities under, inter alia, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, USA PATRIOT Act, and Wiretap Act as well as the Department of Justice’s related legal responsibilities.  Mr. Haas was selected to be a founding member of the National Security Division’s Appellate Section.  While at the National Security Division, Mr. Haas also participated in numerous interagency policy initiatives including efforts to modernize the United States’ export control regulations and to update internal Executive Branch policies concerning national security and/or investigative authorities. 
  
  
• Before joining the National Security Division, Mr. Haas developed substantial experience as a civil litigator in the Civil Division, first as a Trial Attorney in the Federal Programs Branch, and later as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General.  In those positions, Mr. Haas served as the government’s lead or co-counsel in a number of complex, landmark suits defending against constitutional challenges to federal statutes, suits to overturn government policies and programs, challenges to the legality of the decisions or actions of federal officials, and attempts to obtain government information.  Mr. Haas also acquired considerable experience in affirmative litigation challenging state laws and state regulatory actions on federal preemption grounds.  Mr. Haas has significant courtroom experience and has personally argued over twenty dispositive motions, including motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, in federal and state courts across the United States.  He also handled several appellate matters.  As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Haas advised the Assistant Attorney General and other senior leaders in the Civil Division on a wide range of matters involving Bivens liability, the Federal Tort Claims Act, and Defense Base Act issues.  He received four Special Commendation Awards for his work from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division.
  
  
• Mr. Haas has participated extensively in the counseling of senior leaders in the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation and numerous other federal agencies including the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security as well as most elements of the Intelligence Community on a wide range of legislative, regulatory, policy, and litigation matters.
  
  
• Before joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Haas was a law clerk for the Honorable Andrew J. Kleinfeld on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Fairbanks, Alaska.  He also served as a summer intern for the Honorable Charles A. Legge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. 

Publications

• Chipping Away at State Tort Remedies Through Pre-emption Jurisprudence:  Geier v. American Honda Motor Company, 89 Calif. L. Rev. 1927 (2001)
  
  
• The Wellcome Trust’s Disclosures of Gene Sequence Data into the Public Domain & the Potential for Proprietary Rights in the Human Genome, 16 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 145 (2001)