liaison notes

Student Meets Heavy Hitters in the Law and National Security Field

After my selection as student liaison to the Standing Committee on Law and National Security, I began to attend the committee’s monthly breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C. Sandwiched between a writer for the Los Angeles Times and a representative from the General Accounting Office, I sat and listened. When asked, I confessed that yes, I am a law student.

The guest speaker’s résumé included a line that read, "Former Director of the CIA." I assumed a speaker of this caliber was an infrequent appearance until it was announced that he was a member of the committee’s board. At the second breakfast meeting, I was asked to write a review of the morning speaker for the monthly National Security Law Report. The speaker was an even more recent former CIA director. I was humbled.

The standing committee was founded in 1962 by a group that included ABA president (and later Supreme Court justice) Lewis F. Powell. The committee provides legal insight into a host of important national security issues, including the restructuring of the intelligence community to respond to a post-Cold War world; the legal system’s ability to cope with transnational terrorism; the role of the intelligence community in law enforcement; operational international law in the conduct of the military; and the role of law in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Each fall the committee hosts an annual conference in Washington, which is heavily attended by senior government lawyers and members of the private bar and the scholarly community who are involved in national security issues. The standing committee also publishes the monthly National Security Law Report to monitor issues of law to national security legislation, court decisions, and executive branch decisions. The report also features interviews with general counsels from departments and agencies dealing with national security issues.

In addition to writing for the committee’s publication and attending these monthly meetings, I work to promote interest and support among law students for the committee’s ideas and goals. In turn, I communicate the views of law students back to the entity.

If I can assist you with information or questions regarding the Standing Committee on Law and National Security, please e-mail me at terrsie@regent.edu. •

 

Terry Siemens

Terry Siemens, a third-year student at Regent University School of Law, is student liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security.