Robert Sarvis

Robert Christopher Sarvis (born September 15, 1976) is an American attorney.

While attending law school, he was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty; he also clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

In addition, he has been a software developer, being named by Google as a Grand Prize Winner for their Android Development challenge.

Sarvis was born on September 15, 1976, in Fairfax, Virginia, to a father of English and Irish descent and a mother of Chinese descent.

Growing up in West Springfield, he attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a public magnet school and one of Virginia's "Governor's schools".

In his senior year at Thomas Jefferson, Sarvis placed fourth in the 1994 Westinghouse Science Talent Search for a theoretical math project studying lattices, winning a $15,000 scholarship.

Upon graduating from high school, Sarvis attended Harvard University, pursuing a bachelor's degree in mathematics and graduated in 1998.

He won a Harvard College Scholarship, reserved for the top 10% of a class.

In 2002, Sarvis enrolled at the New York University School of Law, graduating with a J.D. in 2005.

During his time at NYU, Sarvis co-founded and became editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, a student-run, conservative-libertarian law review.

He was a member of the Federalist Society while at NYU.

Sarvis earned a Master's degree in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Sarvis is also a Searle Freedom Trust Fellow and served as a fellow at George Mason's Mercatus Center for research.

His teaching careers also include time as a teaching fellow in the Harvard math department, a course assistant for calculus at UC Berkeley as well as an algebra teacher at Western Career College, now known as Carrington College California.

Upon graduating from law school, Sarvis began clerking for Judge E. Grady Jolly on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Jackson, Mississippi.

After his clerkship, he became an Associate Attorney for global law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Sarvis has also held Summer Associate positions at law firms such as Kirkland & Ellis and Fish & Neave.

In 2006, Sarvis penned a 40-page article in the University of New Hampshire's Pierce Law Review expressing concern over congressional delegation of legislative responsibilities to the executive branch, and support for increased formalism in separation of powers.

Sarvis is a member of the New York State Bar and DC Bar.

In 2008, Sarvis left his position at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to resume work in the software development business – which he had worked in between his time at Berkeley and his time in law school.

Along with several others, he founded the company Wertago, to develop apps for Google's Android operating system.

The Wertago development team entered in Google's 2008 Android developer challenge, creating software billed to connect friends during the night and search for parties and gatherings.

Wertago was one of Google's top-50 grand prize winners, receiving $275,000 as a team in addition to $25,000 for each member of the development project.

Sarvis supports universal school choice, drug policy reform, right-to-work laws, and gun rights.

Sarvis supports same-sex marriage.

Sarvis opposed the controversial Virginia H.B. 2313, which was signed into law by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell; the bill increased the sales tax to fund transportation infrastructure.

Sarvis supported more transportation user fees instead.

Sarvis opposes Medicaid expansion, and supports abolition of the car tax and occupational license tax, Sarvis also called for an end to "the increasing aggressiveness of law enforcement tactics" citing an incident involving Virginia ABC agents and a group of University of Virginia students.

Sarvis proposed shifting responsibility for policing liquor sales from ABC to state and local police, and supported privatization of liquor sales in Virginia (which has had a state monopoly on liquor sales for 80 years).

Sarvis earned a Master of Advanced Studies degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in England (the University of Cambridge began offering the master of advanced study in 2010 as a one-year master's degree in Mathematics as a replacement for the "Part III exam in Mathematics").

He briefly enrolled in a doctorate program at the University of California, Berkeley, leaving to join a Silicon Valley-based technology start-up as a software developer.

In 2011, he ran for the Virginia Senate as a Republican, losing to Democrat Dick Saslaw; after the election, Sarvis switched to the Libertarian Party.

In 2011, Sarvis ran unopposed for the Republican nomination for State Senate in the heavily Democratic-leaning Virginia's 35th district.

In the general election in November, he lost to Democrat Dick Saslaw, then the Senate Majority Leader, 62% to 36%.

Sarvis was outspent by his opponent Saslaw $1,897,061 to $26,402.

Shortly after attending the 2012 Young Republican Federation of Virginia Biennial Convention as a delegate, Sarvis left the Republican Party, saying that "I realized that the Republican Party, at least in Virginia, in the current era, is not a good vehicle for liberty candidates. Republicans are very strident on personal issues. When they talk about liberty, they don't mean any personal issues, there is very little respect for personal autonomy."

He was the Libertarian Party of Virginia's nominee for Governor of Virginia in the 2013 election, finishing third behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli, and he was the nominee for the U.S. Senate in the 2014 midterm election.

In 2013, Sarvis was nominated by the Libertarian Party of Virginia as the party's gubernatorial candidate.

His campaign secured sufficient signatures to get him on the ballot, and he became the fourth minor party nominee in forty years to get on the Virginiastatewide ballot.

Sarvis ran against Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race.