Senior Of Counsel
Mark S. Zaid is Senior Of Counsel with Compass Rose Legal Group and the Managing Partner of Mark S. Zaid, P.C. For more than three decades, he has represented people in disputes with the United States Government and foreign governments, focusing on national security law, security clearances, whistleblower protections, the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts, government accountability, and the constitutional rights of free speech and association.
Mr. Zaid regularly represents current and former federal employees, intelligence and military officers, defense contractors, whistleblowers, and members of the media. He also litigates matters involving international transactions, torts and crimes, foreign sovereign and diplomatic immunity, and defamation (on behalf of plaintiffs).
Selected Matters
National Security, Health, and Government Accountability
Mr. Zaid has represented numerous U.S. government personnel affected by Anomalous Health Incidents, commonly known as “Havana Syndrome,” in seeking recognition, care, and accountability. Earlier in his career, he was counsel in litigation that in 2004 obtained a court injunction halting the Department of Defense’s mandatory anthrax vaccination program.
Whistleblower Representation
As part of the legal team led by Compass Rose Founding & Managing Partner Andrew P. Bakaj, Mr. Zaid represented the Intelligence Community whistleblower whose 2019 complaint led to the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, and he represented a second whistleblower in the same matter. In 2017, he co-founded Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit organization that helps government and private-sector employees report wrongdoing safely and lawfully.
Freedom of Information and Free Speech
Mr. Zaid has brought Freedom of Information Act cases seeking records on matters of historic and public interest, including a 2016 lawsuit to obtain the FBI’s D.B. Cooper investigative file and a 2022 lawsuit on behalf of Micky Dolenz of The Monkees seeking the FBI’s 1960s-era file on the band. He also defended former White House national security official Olivia Troye in a defamation lawsuit brought in 2022.
International Litigation
Mr. Zaid was part of the legal team in litigation against Libya arising from the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which resulted in a $2.7 billion settlement.
Teaching, Writing, and Public Service
Mr. Zaid is the founder and Executive Director of the James Madison Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization established in 1998 to educate the public on intelligence, secrecy policy, national security, and government wrongdoing. Since January 2014, he has served as an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University, teaching in its Global Studies and National Security programs, and he teaches D.C. Bar continuing legal education courses on defending security clearances and on filing and litigating Freedom of Information and Privacy Act requests. He is a co-editor of Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws.
Mr. Zaid has testified before, or provided testimony to, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, the House Government Operations Committee, the Department of Energy, the Public Interest Declassification Board, and the Assassination Records Review Board. He is frequently quoted on national security and FOIA matters and has appeared as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and other networks.
Recognition
Mr. Zaid has been named a Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer each year since 2009, and Washingtonian has recognized him among the region’s top lawyers for his national security work since 2009. As the National Law Journal once wrote, “if Agent Mulder ever needed a lawyer, Zaid would be his man.” And as the ABA Journal put it, “Curiously for this town, Zaid is an equal opportunity thorn out to pierce the sides of suit jackets bearing both elephants and donkeys on the lapels.”
Education and Bar Admissions
Mr. Zaid is a 1992 graduate of Albany Law School of Union University, where he served as an Associate Editor of the Albany Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from the University of Rochester in 1989, with honors in Political Science and high honors in History. He is a member of the Bars of New York, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and Maryland, as well as several federal courts.
To read Mark’s Wikipedia entry, click here.
