Bruce Spiva

Over the past three decades, he has tried cases and argued appeals in courtrooms across the country, including arguing against vote suppression in the United States Supreme Court in 2021. In 2022, in his first run for public office, Bruce mounted a competitive run in the primary election for Washington, D.C. Attorney General. 

In addition to founding his own law firm where he practiced for eleven years, Bruce has held several leadership and management positions as a partner at two national law firms. Most recently, Bruce served as the Managing Partner of the D.C. Office and on the firm-wide Executive Committee of Perkins Coie LLP, where he also had an active election law practice. He first-chaired twelve voting rights and redistricting trials across the country, and argued numerous voting rights appeals in U.S. circuit courts and state supreme courts during his tenure at Perkins. 

For decades, Bruce has fought for statehood and local autonomy for the people of Washington, D.C. He has served as the chair and is a current board member of DC Vote, an organization dedicated to securing statehood for the people of the District of Columbia. Bruce was honored as a DC Vote Champion of Democracy in 2012. In 2007, he testified before the U.S. Congress in favor of the proposed D.C. Voting Rights Act. 

Bruce has published, spoken, and testified on many legal and public interest issues, and has long been active in civic and professional service organizations. He serves on the board of Civic Influencers, a national organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of voting by young people, and is the board chair of Civica Initiatives, an organization committed to strengthening democratic institutions. Bruce also serves on the advisory boards of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies and the American Antitrust Institute. 

Bruce graduated from Harvard Law School in 1992, where he was the Treasurer (now called Vice President) of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated with a BA in history from Yale University in 1988. After law school, Bruce clerked for the late Honorable Jerome Farris on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He is admitted to practice in D.C., California, Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court, and many federal circuit and district courts. Bruce joined CLC in June 2024.