Nashville attorney Samar Ali helps Obama confront ISIS

Samar Ali, an attorney who has advised Gov. Bill Haslam on economic development issues and President Barack Obama's administration on fighting terrorists, is joining a Nashville law firm to practice international law and continue her private diplomatic work in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Much of Ali's work entails helping foreign governments retool their laws and regulations to make them more business-friendly, which can drive down youth unemployment and undercut the appeal of terrorism, she said in an interview Monday. She said she'll continue that work at Bone McAllester Norton, which plans to announce her hiring today.

Ali, a former White House Fellow and counterterrorism adviser at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said she continues to consult with Obama administration officials on fighting the militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. She was in Washington, D.C., just last week. While she declined to say whom she talked to or what they discussed, citing national security concerns, she said the attempt to destroy ISIS must be an "all hands on deck" effort.

"It's a defeatable entity," she said. "But it's definitely going to take a united, collaborative effort across the world."

Obama announced a strategy of expanded air strikes in Syria last week to try to "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIS. Ali, a Muslim and a 2003 graduate of Vanderbilt University who grew up in Waverly, Tenn., said the president and Congress are working well together on the issue so far.

"We're all united against ISIS," she said. "I think the president is pulling together all of the right pieces to begin to get everybody on the same page. That's one of the things that speech did."

Ali, 32, started working at Bone McAllester Norton last week. Charles W. Bone, the firm's founder and chairman, called her "an amazing young attorney with tremendous energy and passion for strengthening our communities and helping people."

Ali served as assistant commissioner for international affairs in the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for about 18 months, leaving last fall to return to counterterrorism and conflict resolution work. Tea party and anti-Muslim activists tried to get Haslam to fire her in 2012, saying she was an Islamic fundamentalist who wanted to "embed Shariah law into America's financial system."

Though Haslam's administration dismissed the claims and firmly backed Ali, she said Monday that the controversy was "a very painful experience."

"A lot of the concern was rooted in a lack of understanding of my ideals and my values and where I come from and my identity," she said. "There was confusion over what my intentions were for serving in the government. A lot of the people who were against me probably didn't know that I took an oath of office to uphold both the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution.

"It also made me realize how fast one can be dehumanized, and I definitely felt dehumanized."

Ali, who described herself as "pretty nonpartisan" politically, said her clients at Bone will continue to be mostly private diplomatic foundations working to open Middle Eastern and other nations so their economies will be more open to entrepreneurship and innovation. If that can happen, she said, young people who have struggled to find jobs will have less incentive to join terrorist groups such as ISIS.

She said she plans to keep traveling frequently for work to Washington, New York, Geneva, Istanbul and other cities. She speaks Arabic fluently and Hebrew "semi-fluently."

Reach Michael Cass at 615-259-8838 and on Twitter @tnmetro.