Stephen Preston counsels clients on their most complex and sensitive issues involving defense, intelligence and national security. A former General Counsel of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), he has a wealth of experience in investigations, litigation, federal procurement, False Claims Act, CFIUS, cybersecurity, strategic counseling, and crisis management. Before returning to WilmerHale in 2015, Mr. Preston was the senior-most, longest-serving national security counsel appointed in the Obama Administration, and the only person ever to have served as the chief legal officer of both DoD and CIA.

Mr. Preston was appointed General Counsel of DoD by President Obama in October 2013, after serving as General Counsel of CIA since 2009. During his six years in the Administration, he played a leading role in ensuring that the United States' military operations and intelligence activities fully complied with domestic and international law. His responsibilities included a wide range of issues affecting companies dealing with the government, including competition and M&A review, foreign ownership and control restrictions, cyber intrusions, criminal and civil enforcement, and congressional investigations. Mr. Preston was a key legal adviser on many of the country's most challenging and consequential national security endeavors, including the run-up to the operation against Osama bin Laden in 2011, the ongoing US mission in Afghanistan post-2014, the emerging mission to counter ISIL in Iraq and Syria, and the use of remotely piloted aircraft in counterterrorism operations abroad, among other high-level and confidential legal matters.

Mr. Preston first joined WilmerHale in 1986 and became a partner in 1991. He left the firm in 1993 to become Principal Deputy General Counsel of DoD during the Clinton Administration. In 1995, he moved to the US Department of Justice as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and he served as General Counsel of the Department of the Navy from 1998 to 2000. He returned to the firm in 2001, where he was a partner until 2009.

For his contributions to the nation's security while in office, Mr. Preston has received the highest awards presented to civilians by DoD and CIA, as well as the Department of State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of the Navy. In 2016, Mr. Preston was appointed to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, an independent source of advice regarding national intelligence issues composed of distinguished citizens selected from the national security, political, academic and private sectors.