General Counsel

Matt Dummermuth

Matt Dummermuth serves as the General Counsel for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). 

In addition to more than a dozen years in private practice in Alexandria,VA, and Cedar Rapids, IA, Matt previously led two offices at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa and as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. In these roles, Matt served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee’s National Security and Terrorism Subcommittee and its Child Exploitation Working Group. He also was a member of the Attorney General’s Religious Liberty Task Force, served as the National Amber Alert Coordinator, and led the nation’s largest and most successful criminal immigration worksite enforcement action. Matt also spearheaded DOJ initiatives providing more than $5 billion in annual grants to state and local law enforcement in return for cooperating with the DOJ in fighting violent crime and enforcing immigration laws, and to victim service providers to help human trafficking, child exploitation, and other crime victims.

Matt’s DOJ service further included working as Nominations Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy to help confirm a record number of federal judges; Special AUSA in the civil and criminal divisions in the Eastern District of Virginia; and Counsel and Special Assistant in the Civil Rights Division where he focused on combating human trafficking and enforcing laws prohibiting religious, racial, sex, and disability discrimination in areas such as employment, education, voting, housing, government programs, and public accommodations.

Matt’s education includes growing up on his family’s crop and livestock farm in Iowa and raising and educating his five children. In college, Matt earned a B.S. with Distinction in Agricultural Engineering from Iowa State University and worked as a legislative intern for Senator Chuck Grassley and as the legislative clerk for Rep. Chuck Hurley, Chairman of the Iowa House Judiciary Committee. During law school, Matt earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School, served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, [and led the Harvard Law School Republicans]. After law school, Matt clerked for Judge David R. Hansen on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Matt’s community activities have included serving and teaching in his local church; coaching high school track & field and baseball teams; serving as a Trustee at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; and leading a local Classical Conversations Campus for homeschooling families.