Marine colonel with 32 years' experience advising and assisting clients across a full spectrum legal practice, including as a prosecutor, staff attorney, general counsel, managing partner, commanding officer, and instructor. Principal legal advisor for senior 3 and 4-Star Commanders for over 9 years. Practice has include international and operational law, criminal law, regulatory compliance, intelligence oversight, personnel law, and ethics. Significant leadership experience managing organizations and high performing legal organizations from 2 to 500 people.

Leads a high performing team of 50+ Navy, Marine Corps, and Civilian legal professionals. Responsible to the Judge Advocate General of the Navy for the development of military justice policy; the administration of military justice information to include public access to court-martial dockets, filings, and records pursuant to Article 140a, UCMJ; and the litigation of Navy and Marine Corps appellate cases before the Navy and Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, the Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces, and the United States Supreme Court. Chairs the Professional Responsibility Committee and co-chair the Military Justice Training Coordination Council. Planned and provided oversight for the implementation for the significant Military Justice Reforms mandated by the Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 National Defense Authorization Acts to include the stand-up of the Office of the Special Trial Counsel.

Led and managed a specialized 500 person Marine Corps unit unique throughout the entire Defense Department.• Responsible for consequence management/crisis response to missions of strategic significance—Presidential Inauguration (2021); Presidential Address to Congress on the State of the Union (2020 and 2021); Republican National Presidential Convention (2021); support to federal, state, and local emergency managers/first responders; and strategic missions overseas.• Oversaw training of international/interagency partners in consequence management: Japanese Defense Force, FBI, Capitol Police, Secret Service, DC FEMS and other local law enforcement and fire/emergency services personnel.• Managed $10M annual operational budget supporting over 37 facility structures, and training covering numerous states and countries.

Advised DoD General Counsel on all legal matters related to legal policy and strategic plans in support of Secretary of Defense and his staff.

Principal legal advisor to United States Africa Command. Led a high tempo office of 21 attorneys across a wide range of practice areas. Senior Counsel managing and directing all legal functions supporting the Four-Star Combatant Command responsible for military operations and nation-partnering efforts in Africa. Advised the most senior military leaders in the region on issues impacting the Commander’s area of operations, including ethics inquiries, interdiction operations, advise-and-assist missions, bilateral and multilateral engagements, high-profile investigations, and military justice issues. Represented the U.S. as a senior legal representative to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Senior legal advisor to the Commander on all military and administrative law issues. Functioned as the Principal Attorney of a 4-member legal team who supported 2 executive-level leaders and their senior staff. Covered a complex and interconnected range of domestic and international law, ethics, staffing, and regulatory compliance matters. Ensured a large complex military organization complied with all laws and DoD policies. Completed internal and ethics investigations, advised criminal law charging decisions, and provided ethics advisement.

Principal legal advisor to 4-Star Commanding General leading all US and NATO-ISAF operations in Afghanistan. Responsible for the flawless, timely, and cogent delivery of strategic policy and legal advice to the Commander and subordinate commanders and their legal staffs assigned in theater. Responsible for providing legal advice on, and ensuring full compliance in the following areas of law: fiscal, operational, contracting, procurement, ethics, international, cyber, personnel, EEO, intelligence and intelligence oversight, environmental, criminal, and administrative - answering to the most senior military and political leaders in Washington, Brussels, and Kabul. Directly Managed over 150 subordinate counsel.Responsible for overseeing all legal matters regarding expenditure of the U.S. Government’s $4B/yr Afghan Security Forces Fund (ASFF) and $1B+ NATO Trust Fund in support of the Afghan national security forces, including the award and execution of numerous contracts, oversight of end user and li censing requirements, and issues associated with various Foreign Military Sales cases.Primary coordinator/interlocutor for ISAF/USFOR-A with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Commander of 17 Marine Security Guard detachments guarding US Embassies and Consulates in 16 North and West African nations. This time period includes the “Arab Spring.”Oversaw the operations, training, administration, logistical support for over 125 employees and managed an annual operating budget of $4M. Regularly met with high-level embassy personnel to facilitate interagency operations.

Managing attorney for office of 10 attorneys and three paralegals that provided services to United States Central Command during a period of high tempo operations. Provided legal analyses and advice, in accordance with domestic and international law, to the four-star Commander, U.S. Central Command and staff, the head of all military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and 18 other Middle Eastern countries. Provided advice and counsel on legal issues associated with Title X, United States Code, domestic Intelligence Law, United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, Geneva Conventions, Hague Convention on the Conduct of Hostilities, Chicago International Civil Aviation Conference and Federal Acquisition Regulations.

Assistant OIC and Post-trial Review Officer at second busiest military justice office in DoD.

Principal legal advisor to Regimental Commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Senior prosecutor for Camp Lejeune based units. Supervised 10 prosecutors for felony and misdemeanor level offenses.

Principal Advisor to 5th Battalion, Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces and Deputy Advisor to Freetown Garrison.

Principal legal advisor to Commanding Officer of 2000 member Marine Air-Ground Task Force deployed on an Amphibious Ready Group to the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Gulf.

Served as a prosecutor from Oct 1993- Oct 1994. Served as a Legal Assistance Attorney from Oct 1994-Oct 1995.