Nelson Cunningham is an American attorney and a Democratic political advisor who served in the presidential administrations of

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

Early life and education

He spent much of his childhood in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, where he became fluent in Spanish. He attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

(class of 1980) and

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

, where he edited the ''

Stanford Law Review The ''Stanford Law Review'' (SLR) is a legal journal produced independently by Stanford Law School students. The journal was established in 1948 with future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher as its first president. The review produces s ...

''.Nelson Cunningham
Truman National Security Project. Retrieved 2010-08-27.Managing Political Risk 2009 - Speaker Biographies
The Fletcher School, Tufts University, 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-27.

Career

After graduating from law school, Cunningham worked for Hale and Dorr, a private law firm in Boston. In 1988, he was hired by Rudolph Giuliani to serve as federal prosecutor in

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

. In 1994 and 1995,Cunningham, Nelson

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP) ...

he served as General Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee under then-chairman Joe Biden.The United States & Colombia: What comes next?
Center for American Progress; biographical note for a July 18, 2006 event. Retrieved 2010-08-27. He served on the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

staff under President

as Special Advisor to the President for Western Hemisphere affairs and advised

John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign The 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry, the longtime U.S. senator from Massachusetts, began when he formed an exploratory committee on December 1, 2002. On September 2, 2003, he formally announced his candidacy for Democratic nomination. ...

on foreign policy and trade issues. He was also a member of the

Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

– Biden transition team after their electoral victory in 2008. In 1998, he co-founded Kissinger McLarty Associates (KMA), where he served as managing partner, a role he continues at McLarty Associates, one of the two successors to KMA. McLarty is a Washington, D.C.-based strategic advisory firm that advises companies on government and strategic issues around the world. As of 2009, he serves on several boards, including the Institute of the Americas, the Business Council for International Understanding, the American Security Project, and the US-India Business Council. He also chairs the

New Democratic Network The New Democrat Network is an American think tank that promotes centrist candidates for the Democratic Party. NDN is a 501(c)(4) membership organization that functions in conjunction with its two subsidiary organizations, the NDN Political Fun ...

's Latin America Policy Initiative and is a member of the Yale President's Council on International Activities and the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, Cunningham has been mentioned as a possible appointee for a position within the

Office of the United States Trade Representative The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an agency of the United States federal government responsible for developing and promoting American trade policy. Part of the Executive Office of the President, it is headed by the ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Nelson Living people Stanford Law School alumni United States presidential advisors Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr people Yale University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)