Michael Vatis is Director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS) at Dartmouth College. ISTS is a principal national center for research and development of counterterrorism technology, with a significant focus on cyber security. Mr. Vatis joined ISTS in March 2001. Mr. Vatis is also Of Counsel with the international law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson, specializing in e-commerce and Internet law issues.
Prior to joining ISTS, Mr. Vatis founded and served as the first Director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) in Washington, D.C. Located within the FBI, NIPC is the lead federal agency responsible for detecting, warning of, and responding to cyber attacks, including computer crime, cyber terrorism and cyber espionage.
Mr. Vatis has also served in the U.S. Departments of Justice and Defense. As Associate Deputy Attorney General and Deputy Director of the Executive Office for National Security, he coordinated the Justice Department’s national security activities and advised the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General on issues such as counterterrorism, high-tech crime, encryption, counter-intelligence, foreign policy, national defense and infrastructure protection. At Defense, Mr. Vatis served as a Special Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, advising the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the General Counsel on sensitive legal and policy issues.
Mr. Vatis also practiced law with the firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt in Washington, D.C., specializing in Supreme Court and appellate litigation. Before that, Mr. Vatis served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and for then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Mr. Vatis earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1988, graduating Magna Cum Laude and serving as Supervising Editor of The Harvard Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree, also Magna Cum Laude, from Princeton University, where he majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs