Closing Guantanamo Base, Cuba

Submitted by ub on

President Obama has appointed a Washington lawyer with increasingly responsible government experience to be the State Department’s new special envoy for closing Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Prison in Cuba.

Mr. Cliff Sloan has litigated cases at all levels of federal and state courts, including six U.S. Supreme Court arguments, numerous arguments in the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and matters in trial and district courts across the country.

Sloan’s practice focuses on a wide range of litigation and appeals, including cases involving intellectual property, administrative law, commercial disputes, securities law, tax controversies and constitutional issues. He also regularly advises clients on copyright, trademark, new media and First Amendment matters.

Mr. Sloan has served in high-ranking positions in all three branches of the federal government, including experience as Associate Counsel to the President and Assistant to the Solicitor General. He also has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Procedures. Among his other activities, Mr. Sloan has been a leader in Internet litigation. The National Law Journal has described him as “an expert on cyberspace,” and The New York Times singled out his amicus curiae brief in a landmark Supreme Court Internet case as “very likely” having a significant impact on the Justices.

From 2000 to 2008, Mr. Sloan served as General Counsel of Media giant Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, The Washington Post Company’s online subsidiary. He was active in the in-house bar, serving on the board of directors of the Association of Corporate Counsel and on the Advisory Board of Corporate Pro Bono. From 2005 to 2008, he also served as Publisher of Slate Magazine, which was acquired by The Washington Post Company in 2005. He has taught the law of cyberspace as an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, George Washington University Law School and American University’s Washington College of Law.

Mr. Sloan was selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2013 and The Best Lawyers in America 2013. He also has received numerous awards, including being named “Appellate Lawyer of the Week” by The National Law Journal in 2012 for his representation in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court; and one of Min Magazine’s “21 Most Intriguing People in Publishing” in 2007. He is a member of the Legal Services Corp.’s Pro Bono Task Force. Mr. Sloan is the co-author of The Great Decision, a book about the historic Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison (Public Affairs, 2009), and comments regularly on Supreme Court developments.