Jason D. Wright

White-Collar Defense and Commercial Litigation

A trial lawyer at heart, Mr. Wright has a vibrant practice in the courtroom as a white-collar criminal defense attorney and commercial litigator. His recent defense experience includes serving as co-counsel in the widely publicized Dewey & LeBoeuf trial, handling federal and U.S. Supreme Court appeals in securities and financial fraud cases (Madoff and Westgate), defending public corruption jury trials against senior U.S. government officials accused of illegal contracting, and advising on alleged multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency fraud cases. His recent commercial litigation experience includes successful representation in civil RICO, Defend Trade Secrets Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act cases, as well as other civil matters in courts across the United States and abroad.

Regulatory Compliance, Sanctions, and National Security Law

Drawing on a distinguished military career that required close engagement with U.S. law enforcement, intelligence, and national security agencies, Mr. Wright understands the complexities of the U.S. national security and international sanctions regimes. He regularly advises and represents clients in regulatory and other matters involving the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of the Treasury and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Special Forces Community. Mr. Wright has a deep knowledge about the laws these agencies enforce, the agencies themselves, and how they operate and coexist to interpret and enforce those laws in practice.

EB-5 Corporate Counseling, Administrative Law and Civil Litigation

Mr. Wright has successfully counseled and represented many high-net-worth foreign nationals and EB-5 projects since the early days of the Immigrant Investor Program. He has advised and counseled EB-5 investors, new commercial enterprises, job-creating entities and regional centers on the EB-5 Program’s compliance requirements and as a litigator, has successfully challenged EB-5 visa denials in federal court against the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s Investor Program Office (IPO) under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). These highly specialized representations draw on his understanding of corporate structures, commercial paper, securities law, immigration law, commercial litigation and his insight into the complex rules and regulations under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and APA. His EB-5 corporate counseling and litigation matters have spanned the real estate, hotel, health care, entertainment and logistics sectors. In one of his many EB-5 litigation successes, he secured a legal victory that granted standing to commercial enterprises, job-creating enterprises, and EB-5 regional centers to sue in federal court to overturn visa denials for their EB-5 project investors.

Public International Law

Mr. Wright, the first U.S. military officer to earn an advanced law degree (M.St., 2010) in international human rights law from the University of Oxford, has published and presented on public international law matters in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Mr. Wright, whose expertise has been sought by intergovernmental organizations, has tried and defended cases in the United States involving the application of public international law and advised on litigation before various international tribunals.

Mr. Wright is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where he lectures on international human rights law, international humanitarian law, the laws of war, terrorism, and international criminal law. He previously directed an international criminal law litigation clinic at Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Distinguished Government Service

Mr. Wright is a judge advocate (JAG) in the U.S. Army Reserve assigned to the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point where he teaches constitutional and military law. Between 2005 and 2014, Mr. Wright served as an Army JAG on active duty with tours of duty in Europe, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Iraq. In 2008, he became the first lawyer in U.S. Army history to become an aide-de-camp to a commanding general in combat. Before his Army JAG service, Mr. Wright clerked for the Secretary of the U.S. Army in the Office of the General Counsel and thereafter for the Honorable Barry R. Poretz of the “Rocket Docket,” the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia. Wright currently holds the rank of Major in the U.S. Army Reserve, and has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal by U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, the Army Meritorious Service Medical and the Airborne Parachutist Badge.

Pro Bono Activities

Mr. Wright maintains an active pro bono practice in support of veterans' issues, wounded warriors and their families, and Gold Star Families.

MILITARY SERVICE

U.S. Army Reserve
—Assistant Professor of Law,
U.S. Military Academy, 2020 –
—Deputy Regional Defense Counsel,
New York, 2014–2020

U.S. Army
—Managing Trial Defense Counsel,
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, 2011–2014
—Trial Defense Counsel,
U.S. Army Europe, 2009–2011
— Aide-de-Camp to LTG Mark P. Hertling, Commanding General,
Iraq, 2008–2009
— International Law Attorney & Military Planner,
Germany & Iraq, 2006–2008
— Administrative Law Attorney,
Germany, 2005–2006