Mark David Agrast is Vice President of the World Justice Project, and played a central role in the development of the WJP Rule of Law Index. He is Executive Director and Executive Vice President of the American Society of International Law, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization whose members include scholars, practicing lawyers, judges, and diplomats in over 100 countries. He previously served, from 2009-2014, as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Agrast was a senior vice president and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress from 2003-2009, and held senior staff positions with the U.S. House of Representatives from 1992 to 2009. He practiced international law with the Washington office of Jones Day from 1985 to 1992. Mr. Agrast has served in numerous leadership capacities in the American Bar Association, including as a member of its Board of Governors and its Executive Committee. He is a longtime member of the ABA House of Delegates, and has served as chair of various entities, including the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities (now the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice), the Commission on Immigration, and the Commission on Disability Rights. He currently serves on the Council of the Section of International Law. Mr. Agrast is a member of the Board of Governors of the Washington Foreign Law Society and a past co-chair of the National LGBT Bar. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He also serves on the Washington D.C. Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he graduated summa cum laude from Case Western Reserve University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He pursued his postgraduate studies as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, and received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Yale Journal of International Law. He is a member of the Supreme Court Bar and is admitted to practice in Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Mark David Agrast will speak at the World Justice Forum's Welcoming Reception