A panel featuring the top legal advisors in the executive branch launched the 25th Annual Review of the Field of National Security Law held Nov. 5-6 in Washington, D.C.
Those featured on the panel, “National Security Law in Process – the Lawyers’ Group Perspective,” were (from left): moderator James E. Baker, chair, ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security; RDML Darse E. “Del” Crandall, legal counsel, Office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Brian Egan, legal adviser to the National Security Council, Office of the White House Counsel, Executive Office of the President; Caroline Krass, general counsel, Central Intelligence Agency; Karl R. Thompson, assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice; Mary E. McLeod, acting legal adviser and principal deputy legal adviser, Office of the Legal Adviser, Department of State; Robert Taylor, acting general counsel and principal deputy general counsel, Department of Defense; and Robert Litt, general counsel, Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Other panel topics included Legal Issues of Future War; Legal Issues in the South China Sea Controversy; Domestic Drones, and the Future of Nuclear Non-Proliferation.
The annual gathering of several hundred participants is cosponsored by the ABA standing committee; the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia School of Law; the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University School of Law; and the Center on National Security and the Law at Georgetown Law.