Bartlett Cleland serves as General Counsel and Director of Strategic Initiatives for NetChoice. 

Bartlett’s decades of work on technology and innovation in public policy have been informed by his broad array of work and education outside of traditional public policy channels. Whether relying on his business background of MBA, work at a human resources consulting firm or as a CEO, he seeks to make every policy debate relevant to what happens to real people and to real business. He has spent decades working for public policy think tanks, technology trade associations, social welfare organizations and on Capitol Hill. 

On Capitol Hill, Bartlett was intimately involved in numerous critical debates including encryption and “supercomputer” export controls, the Internet Tax Fairness Act, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Communications Decency Act, the 1996 Telecommunications Act and others, including efforts to increase information for citizens about Congressional activities and efforts.

He previously served on the Internet Education Foundation Board of Directors, which involved working closely with the Internet Caucus on Capitol Hill. He served two terms as the Chair of the Technology and Communications Taskforce of the American Legislative Exchange Council.  He also was a member of the Internet Safety Technical Taskforce, a group comprised of leading Internet businesses and organizations and formed by 49 state attorneys general to focus on identifying effective online safety tools and technologies, a member of the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer Advisory Council and a member of the ISO 279 (Innovation Management) Technical Advisory Group.

Bartlett previously worked for Americans for Tax Reform as technology and policy counsel, and advised then-Commissioner Grover G. Norquist on the Advisory Committee on Electronic Commerce. Later, he represented the software industry handling a variety of copyright issues including open source and proprietary challenges, and a variety of tax and finance issues particular to the software industry, serving as tax and associate general counsel at ITAA, and as Regional VP of Texas for TechAmerica. After that, he was the General Counsel and Vice President for Innovation and Technology at the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Bartlett graduated from Millikin University with a B.S. in philosophy and business administration. He received his Masters of Business Administration and a law degree with a specialization in international and comparative law from St. Louis University. He is admitted to the Missouri bar.

When not found at the local comic book store, Bartlett can be found in the kitchen attempting to perfect his grandma’s German, pastry and American country cooking recipes; admiring comic book pop art of the late 50’s and early 60’s; or traveling across the country to visit his daughters.