Education

J.D., Harvard University Law School

B.A., Harvard University

Bar and Court Admissions

District of Columbia

Maryland

Joe Sandler is a member of the firm Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., in Washington, D.C., concentrating in non-profit organizations, government ethics, regulation of lobbying, campaign finance and election law, and corporate, commercial and tax issues affecting political and advocacy activities.

Joe has been named in the 2010 through 2016 editions of The Best Lawyers in America; and as one of the nation’s leading lawyers in political law by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, for 2008 through 2016.

From 1993 until 1998, Joe served as in-house general counsel of the Democratic National Committee and he continued to serve as general counsel of the DNC through his law firm through 2008. Joe served as general counsel of the 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Democratic National Conventions; and as general counsel of the Host Committees for the 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions.

From 1986 to 1989, Joe served as staff counsel for the Democratic National Committee, with responsibility for delegate selection, campaign finance, party rules and federal and state election law matters. He was general counsel of the Rules and Credentials Committees for the 1988 Democratic National Convention. In November and December of 2000, Joe was a member of the core legal/litigation team in Tallahassee for the Gore/Lieberman Recount Committee.

From 1989 through 1992 Joe was counsel to, then a partner of, the law firm Arent Fox in Washington, D.C. While in private practice at Arent Fox from 1989 to 1993, Joe was general counsel of the Democratic Governors Association and general co-counsel of the Association of State Democratic Chairs.

Joe is former co-chair of the Election Law Committee of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association.

In 2012-13, Joe served as co-chair of the Task Force on Lobbying Regulation of the Administrative Law Section of the American Bar Association. He is former co-chair of the Election Law Committee of the Administrative Law Section and previously chaired the task force on reform of the Foreign Agents Registration Act for the International Trade Committee of the ABA’s Section on International Law. In 2010, 2011 and 2012, he taught courses, as an adjunct professor, on regulation of government influence, at William & Mary Law School and in 2010, at University of Pittsburgh Law School.

Joe is the co-author of Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002: Law and Explanation (CCH 2002). Joe wrote the chapter on Tax Rules Limiting Deductibility of Lobbying Expenses for The Lobbying Manual (5th Ed. 2016); on election law aspects of the 2007 ethics and lobbying reform law for fourth edition of that publication; and chapters on congressional ethics and the Foreign Agents Registration Act for the first edition, all published by the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He has published a variety of articles on campaign finance and election law; and has spoken on panels on lobbying regulation and campaign finance law sponsored by bar associations and advocacy organizations and has guest lectured on those topics at a number of universities and law schools.

In 2011, Joe was appointed by the Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates to serve on the Commission to Study Campaign Finance Law, established by the Maryland General Assembly.

Joe graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude in 1975 and from Harvard Law School with honors in 1978.

News

• September 30, 2022

  Democratic firms prevail in suit against Project Veritas

• September 30, 2022

  Sandler, Reiff, & Birkenstock named to Washingtonian magazine’s Top Lawyers Hall of Fame

• February 14, 2022

  Joe Sandler talks election law and compliance on TCW’s “How To Win A Campaign” podcast

• November 13, 2019

  Partners Joseph Sandler and Josh Rosenstein quoted in USAToday

• December 07, 2017

  Joe Sandler Comments on Grassley-Johnson Lobbying Bill

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