David Cleary joins DLA Piper as Senior Policy Advisor in firm’s Health Policy Strategic Consulting Practice

DLA Piper today announced the addition of David Cleary as Senior Policy Advisor in the new Health Policy Strategic Consulting Practice within the firm’s Regulatory and Government Affairs practice group.

Prior to joining DLA Piper, Cleary was the principal advisor to former Senator Richard Burr and Chief of Staff to former Senator Lamar Alexander. He was the longest serving Republican Staff Director on the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, holding this position for nearly a decade.

Cleary’s skillset spans education, health, labor and pensions, appropriations, and complex politics and processes in Washington. He played vital roles in helping pass recent laws updating the No Child Left Behind Act, addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, fighting the opioid crisis, and spurring medical innovation in the 21st Century CURES Act.

Cleary adds to the expanding Health Policy Strategic Consulting Practice, which provides a variety of services including multi-disciplinary strategic planning, business consulting, and congressional and federal agency consulting, as well as deep-dive examinations of client businesses to identify legislative or regulatory opportunities and/or vulnerabilities. He joins his former colleagues already at DLA Piper, including Margaret Martin, the HELP Committee’s former Senior Advisor of Health Policy, and Michael Sorensen, Burr’s former Director of Operations.

"David is one of Washington’s most widely respected policy and political strategists,” said Edward “Smitty” Smith, chair of the firm’s Regulatory and Government Affairs practice. “With nearly 25 years of experience in the Senate, House of Representatives and Department of Education, his background and insights will prove invaluable to our clients.”