back to 2009 Senior Fellows
Seth Stodder
President & CEO
Palindrome Strategies, LLC
Former Director of Policy and Planning
US Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security
Areas of Interest
1) counterterrorism, intelligence gathering, and civil liberties
2) border security, supply chain security, and immigration law and policy
3) resilience of US society
Biography
Prior to joining Palindrome Strategies, LLC, Seth M.M. Stodder’s practice at Akin Gump focused on appellate litigation matters, as well as homeland security, customs, and immigration law and policy issues.
Mr. Stodder served as director of policy and planning for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a federal agency of 42,000 employees within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and as counselor/senior policy advisor to CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner. During his tenure, Mr. Stodder was deeply involved in designing, implementing, managing and communicating such key homeland security initiatives as the Container Security Initiative (CSI), the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program, US-VISIT, the “Smart Box” Initiative, the Smart Border Accords with Mexico and Canada, the Immigration Security Initiative (ISI), Operation Green Quest, and other efforts to secure the borders, seaports and airports of the United States and the international movement of people and commerce. He oversaw the negotiation of numerous CSI agreements with foreign governments, including China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, as well as efforts to enlist the support of major U.S. and foreign corporations in helping secure America through such programs as C-TPAT and FAST. He was heavily involved in the effort to create the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the merger of more than half of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service with most of U.S. Customs, forming U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Mr. Stodder also created a new CBP Office of Policy and Planning and served as its first director.
Before entering government service, Mr. Stodder was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., where his practice focused on appellate and constitutional litigation, media law, antitrust and white collar criminal defense. He authored numerous appellate briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal circuit courts of appeal, the California appellate courts and numerous other state appellate courts. He also engaged in substantial trial-level litigation in federal and state courts, and presented oral argument on numerous occasions.
Mr. Stodder received his B.A. with honors from Haverford College in 1991 and his J.D. in 1995 from the University of Southern California Law School, where he served as executive articles editor of the Southern California Law Review, was a supervisor in the Post-Conviction Justice Project and was a member of Order of the Coif. After earning his law degree, he was a law clerk to the Honorable Audrey B. Collins of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Mr. Stodder is a member of the California and District of Columbia Bars and the American and Los Angeles County Bar Associations. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous circuit courts of appeal.
Mr. Stodder is a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is a member of Town Hall Los Angeles and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. He has co-authored numerous articles on constitutional, media and antitrust issues, and has presented testimony before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
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