I'm an advocate of international law and the use of international law arguments in US courts. Please see my other website international-lawyers.org . I am currently engaged in a number of cases in the US and overseas involving the human rights of defendants caught up in the American war on terrorism. I can speak Spanish and some Arabic.

I am a long time civil liberties and civil rights advocate. I'm particularly interested in wrongful prosecution, police brutality, "Section 1983" and Federal Tort Claims. I've met many victims of government persecution in the years I've researched the history of cointelpro, and have done extensive research on court cases brought by cointelpro victims. While these are historical and noteworthy cases, they show the kinds of abuses that can occur when there are no checks and balances on the police.

I am currently working on half a dozen FOIA cases involving overseas CIA and military operations, and FBI investigations of American citizens. In cases involving national security, these agencies may refuse to release the files, release only heavily redacted copies of them, or perform only a cursory search for the requested materials. They can also charge exorbitant search fees, easily running into tens of thousands of dollars. Litigating these cases requires experience in how the agencies' records systems are organized, what the markings on the documents mean, how the agencies routinely apply FOIA exemptions, and the standards for obtaining a public interest fee waiver.

My pro se case, Wolf v. CIA, challenges the CIA's response to "neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence" of any information when asked to do a name search. I've written a historical review paper Judicial Review of the "Glomar" Response in Freedom Of Information Act Cases, which shows how the courts have bent the rules for the CIA, creating new legal theories that other agencies are now keen to use to protect their own secret information. While most Freedom of Information investigators are writers and academics, the FOIA can also be a powerful tool in litigation against the government. In my article The CIA as an Administrative Agency, I describe how the CIA is just another executive agency whose activities are subject to judicial review.

Filing for federal non-profit tax status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code is relatively straightforward. Setting up your organization so it's granted non-profit status is something else. This research paper, Founding Directors in Public Charities, explains the standards used by the IRS to determine non-profit status, and addresses a common question -- whether an individual may be designated as the "founding director" of an organization, who cannot be removed by the Board of Directors unless there is a breach of duty to the organization. Also of interest is this Conflict of Interest Policy, a fairly recent IRS requirement. In my last commercial job before going into law, I negotiated and managed multi-million dollar product development and supply contracts, and am competent to draft agreements for your non-profit or small business.

I also have civil ligitation experience and am interested in cases where a person has been victimized by fraud, deceptive trade practices, predatory lending, illegal collection agency practices, and other good causes.

DISCLAIMER: The website is meant only to advertise my services, and nothing here should be construed as legal advice. If you have a legal problem, please call me to discuss it, rather than sending the details by email. I am a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and can practice law in Washington D.C. Webpage copyright Paul Wolf, 2006.