Jim Baker

About Jim

Jim Baker was Director of National Security & Cybersecurity at the R Street Institute. Formerly general counsel of the FBI, he has worked on cyber and national security issues both inside and outside of government.

Baker joined R Street from the Lawfare Institute, where he was a visiting fellow. He also worked for the Brookings Institution, where he was a visiting fellow in governance studies. In addition to his general counsel position, Baker served as a senior strategic advisor at the FBI until May 2018. He has been a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. For nearly a decade, Jim was responsible for representing the U.S. government before FISA courts, and reviewed, prepared or supervised over 10,000 FISA applications. Baker is also a CNN Legal Analyst

Baker holds a juris doctor and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.