Wade MCMullen
Wade McMullen is a seasoned civil and human rights lawyer who has spent his career challenging power in service of those fighting for a more just world. He specializes in civil and human rights law, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, and advising civil society organizations and activists.
Through civil rights litigation and advocacy, Wade helps clients challenge systems of criminalization and defends activists’ rights to free speech and assembly. He has won landmark international cases establishing nationwide protections against gender-based violence in Guatemala, strengthening protest rights in Zimbabwe, exposing the systematic suppression of civic space during elections in Ethiopia, and securing the release of dozens of political prisoners around the world.
Wade has worked with human rights defenders and social movements on campaigns that freed over 100 people illegally detained on Rikers Island on unaffordable cash bail, established the right to a day of rest and overtime pay for New York farmworkers, secured TPS protections for tens of thousands of Cameroonian immigrants in the US, prevented mass deportations in the Dominican Republic, advanced accountability for war crimes in Ukraine and Gaza, and challenged anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Uganda.
As a FOIA attorney, Wade has helped journalists, whistleblowers, academics, and advocacy organizations obtain thousands of government records. He has represented clients against a range of federal agencies, including the FBI, CIA, DOJ, State Department, Army, Air Force, HHS, NIH, FDA, SEC, and many others.
Widely recognized for his expertise, Wade has been featured as an authority in national and international outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Guardian, The Intercept, Politico, CNN, NPR, and Al Jazeera.
Wade is a Distinguished Fellow with the Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law, where he works with law students on advancing human rights under authoritarianism, and a Fellow at the Center for Just Journalism, where he serves as a senior adviser on human rights and the criminal legal system. Wade also serves on the Board of Directors of Al Otro Lado and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, two immigrant rights organizations.
In 2019, Wade was the supervising attorney for the Civil and Human Rights Clinic at Howard University School of Law where he focused on accountability for police violence. From 2015-2018, he co-directed the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2011, Wade was the inaugural Donald M. & Susan N. Wilson Fellow at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, where he went on to serve in a variety of roles, including Senior Vice President of Programs and Legal Strategy, until 2024.
Wade is a graduate of New York University School of Law, and he is licensed to practice in New York, DC, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the District of Columbia.
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