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Christopher Fonzone

Christopher Fonzone

Chris Fonzone was sworn in as the ODNI General Counsel on June 24, 2021. As chief legal officer of ODNI, Mr. Fonzone is responsible for overseeing legal matters arising within the agency, as well as coordinating legal issues throughout the Intelligence Community. Fonzone has many years of national security experience. During the Obama Administration, he served as Deputy Assistant and Deputy Counsel to the President and Legal Advisor to the National Security Council (NSC). While there, he provided advice and counsel to the President, the National Security Advisor, the Homeland Security Adviser, and other senior White House officials on the full range of matters before the NSC.

 

Before his tenure at the White House, Fonzone served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense; worked at the Department of Justice in the Office of Legal Counsel and on the Civil Division’s Appellate Staff; and clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

 

Most recently, Fonzone was a partner in Sidley Austin’s Privacy and Cybersecurity group, with a practice that focused on a wide range of issues related to information technology and cybersecurity.

 

Mr. Fonzone attended Cornell University and Harvard Law School.