Joel Wiginton

PROFILE

Joel Wiginton is a senior vice president and head of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ government relations department. In this role, he helps shape and execute Pew’s nonpartisan and evidence-based strategies to advance policy solutions that serve the public.

Before joining Pew, Wiginton was a principal at The Raben Group, providing strategic advice to the firm’s nonprofit and corporate clients on global, federal, and state legal and policy issues. He previously spent nearly two decades heading government relations and serving as a senior counsel for Sony Corporation of America, Samsung Electronics, and other global technology and entertainment companies.

Wiginton’s public sector work includes serving as special assistant for legislative affairs to President Bill Clinton, primarily as a liaison to the Senate Judiciary, Commerce, Banking, and Small Business committees. He also served as chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Courts. Wiginton has taught at the Georgetown University Law Center and the George Washington University Law School, and previously practiced law at major firms in Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School.