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.
As a FOIA litigator, Wade has helped journalists, whistleblowers, academics, and advocacy organizations obtain thousands of government records. He currently represents clients against a range of federal agencies, including the DOJ, FBI, CIA, State Department, HHS, NIH, FDA, SEC, and multiple branches of the military (among others).
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 to free over 100 people illegally detained on Rikers Island on unaffordable cash bail, establish the right to a day of rest and overtime pay for New York farmworkers, secure TPS protections for tens of thousands of Cameroonian immigrants in the US, prevent mass deportations in the Dominican Republic, promote accountability for war crimes in Ukraine and Gaza, and challenge anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Uganda.
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, and a speaker and guest lecturer at top law schools around the United States.
From 2024-2026 Wade was a Distinguished Fellow with the Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law. In 2019, he 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, Wade co-directed the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2011, he was the inaugural Donald M. & Susan N. Wilson Fellow at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center.
Wade is currently a Fellow at the Center for Just Journalism, where he acts as a senior adviser on civil rights and the criminal legal system. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Al Otro Lado and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, two organizations working in the movement for immigrant justice.
Wade is a graduate of New York University School of Law, and he is licensed to practice law in New York, DC, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
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