Neil MacBride
Neil H. MacBride is a Virginia lawyer who previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed MacBride's nomination as U.S. Attorney on September 15, 2009, and he took office three days later. He left office on September 13, 2013. Prior to his appointment by President Barack Obama, MacBride served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice.
MacBride formerly served as Vice President, Anti-Piracy and General Counsel, of the Business Software Alliance, where he oversaw global anti-piracy enforcement and copyright policy. Prior to that, he served as Staff Director and Chief Counsel to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2001-2005. From 1996-2001, MacBride was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. Before his stint in public service, MacBride practiced law with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, Chartered. He also served as a judicial law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. in the Eastern District of Virginia.
He is a magna cum laude graduate of Houghton College, where he received in B.A. in History and the Humanities, and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a Barrister with the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center on Law & Security at New York University.
He was the lead prosecutor in the Megaupload controversy. He is also responsible for filing motions in the Grand Jury investigation of WikiLeaks.
